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EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



AN ARGUMENT 

FOR THB 

SALTATION OF INFANTS, 

WITH 

CONSOLATIONS FOR BEREAVED PARENTS, 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED POEMS, 

ON THE SAME "SUBJECT. 

GEO. W.^ETHUNE, D.D., 

MINISTER OF THE REF. PROT. DUTCH CHURCH ON THE HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN. 



IN THE NAME OF THE HOLY CHILD JESUS ! 



NEW YORK: 

BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

OF THE 

REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH, 
SYNOD'S ROOMS, 61 FRANKLIN STREET. 

18 5 9. sj _ 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

REV. THOMAS C. STRONG, 

On behalf of the Board of Publication of the R. P. Dutch Church in 

North America, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court 

of the United States for the Southern District 

of New York. 





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TO 
THE MOTHER 

OF 

THE PRECIOUS CHILD, 

WHOSE 

EARLY ASSUMPTION TO HEAVEN 

WAS 

THE IMMEDIATE OCCASION 

OF 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES, 

THEY ARE 

KESPECTFULLT AND AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED. 



I 



PREFACE. 



The Author, having long felt the want of a little book 
for the comfort of bereaved parents, has written the 
following pages in the hope that they may be useful. 
He would far rather have suggested to his publishers a 
reprint of some work by a 'more able pen, but could not 
find one answering the purpose. There are extant 
several treatises on the doctrine of Infant Salvation, 
which well repay a studious perusal ; yet the style of 
those he has seen, is too elaborate and scholastic for the 
bruised spirit of a mourner; while occasional sermons 
on the death of little children have scarcely sufficient 
fulness for general application. What success has 
followed his endeavours to avoid such defects, the 

i* 



VI PREFACE. 

reader must judge ; but his aim has been to make the 
argument scriptural and the consolation evangelical. 

He has written, also, from a strong conviction, that 
the scheme of Christian faith taught by the Articles 
of the Reformed Churches in harmony with those of 
Geneva, which has been # so often foully accused of 
consigning departed infants to a miserable eternity, 
affords the only satisfactory hope of their salvation. 
In this, as in every other respect, the doctrine of free 
sovereign grace through the vicarious merits of Jesus 
Christ, will be found to be most accordant with the 
merciful glory of God and the Divine teachings of our 
ever blessed Lord. 

It was not thought necessary to confirm the positions 
taken by citing human authorities of the highest and 
best accredited orthodoxy, though they might easily 
have been noted, as they were plentifully at hand ; but 
the scriptural references have been carefully made, 
that the reader might be led to search and see whether 
these things are so. If, therefore, a clerical brother 
should miss what he may deem desirable in a mono- 
graph upon an important branch of theology, let him 



PREFACE. Vll 

be so kind as to remember that the design of this essay- 
is the comfort of the sorrowful, not the instruction of 
the learned. The latter task would be above the 
Author's pretensions; the former within his office as a 
minister of Him who was sent " to bind up the broken- 
hearted;" and all to whom this little book may come, 
will pardon his failures as they have the proof of his 
pains. Yet he is not without expectation of reward 
from the grateful blessing of those for whose bleeding 
affections there is Balm in Gilead, though the hand, 
which would apply it, may not be as skilful, as it 
means to be kind. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. 

PAGB 

Introduction. Death of Children. Anguish of be- 
reaved Parents. Consolation in the Gospel. 
The doctrine of Infant Salvation stated 13 

Chapter II. 

I. The purpose of the Redemption. II. The method 
of Salvation. III. The connection of Christ's 
office as Judge with his work as Saviour 21 

Chapter III. 

IY. The favour of God in Christ towards little Chil- 
dren, as exhibited under the Old Testament. ... 43 

Chapter IV. 

V. The favour of God in Christ to little Children, as 

shown under the New Testament 51 

Chapter V. 

VI. The mutitude of the Redeemed out of all nations, 
includes all infants. Vindication of Providence. 
The glory of Christ in his little ones 75 

Chapter VI. 
The Gospel the only scheme of pity for little Children. 
Cruelty of Heathenism. Infanticide. Classic 

9 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

philosopny.* Sacramental Regeneration. Sal- 
vation by works. The Infant saved by Christ 
alone 87 

Chapter VII. 

Affliction from God and comfort only from Him, 
through Jesus Christ, to the penitent. Lessons 
of affliction for the unconverted. Exhortation 
to repentance and faith 97 

Chapter VIII. 

Afflictions of the believer not strange. No chastise- 
ment without actual suffering. Sorrow not 
forbidden, but should be regulated. I. Our 
afflictions part of Providence; as regards our- 
selves: as regards others: as regards the Divine 
glory 1 09 

Chapter IX. 

Farther considerations to regulate grief. II. Our 
remaining mercies. We deserve nothing, yet 
have Christ, the unspeakable gift of God. III. 
Our duties. Sorrow should not make us un- 
faithful. Zeal of Christ in his affliction. Con- 
solation in doing good. IV. The sympathy of 
Christ for his people. The God-man. The Man 
of Sorrows. His strength perfect in our weak- 
ness. V. The Rest awaiting us. No satisfaction 
promised here. Salvation by hope. The far 
more exceeding and eternal glory 137 



CONTENTS. XI 

Chapter X. 

PAGE 

Special consolation for Christians bereaved of Chil- 
dren. Adapted to parental hopes. I. The cove- 
nant with God. The promise of God fulfilled by 
the death of tne Child 161 

Chapter XL 

II. The little one escaped from pain. III. The little 
one forever free from sin. IV. The little one 
perfect in the knowledge of God. To go and be 
with Christ and his little ones is far better. The 
author's parting words ... 173 



CONSOLATORY VERSES 

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 

Early Lost, Early saved. — Geo. W. Bethune 191 

The Upper Choir. — Caroline May 194 

On a Fair Infant. — Milton 198 

Hymn to Night. — Geo. W. Bethune 200 

The D}'ing. — Thomas Hood. ..' 203 

Little Children 204 

On the Death of an Infant 205 

The Joy of the Dead. — Giles Fletcher 207 

The Farewell to the Dead. — Mrs. Hemans 208 

Weep not for Her ! — Noctes Ambrosianjs 210 

O, Stay those Tears. — Andrews Norton 213 

To an Infant in Heaven. — Thomas Ward 214 

Oh! say not 'twere a keener Blow. — T. H. Bayly. . 216 
Low she Lies, who blest our Eyes. — Mrs. Norton. . . 217 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PAoa 

Death of the First-born. — Willis Gaylord Clapk 219 

My Child. — Rev. John Pierpont 222 

On the Death of a Son.— W. B. 0. Peabody 225 

On seeing an Infant prepared for the Grave. — Mrs. 

Sigourney 9 226 

Thoughts while making a Grave for a First Child, 

born dead. — N. P. Willis 228 

The Spirit of the Departed.— T. K. Hervey 231 

The Grave. — James G. Brooks 233 

I hear Thy Voice, O Spring. — W. J. Pabodie 234 

A Psalm of Death. — H. W. Longfellow 236 

The Dying Boy.— J. H. Bright 238 

A Dirge 211 

To a Dying Infant 213 

The Three Sons; or Faith Triumphant. — Rev. J. 

Moultrie, A. M 215 

Lines suggested by a Passage in a Friend's Letter, — 

Geo. W. Bethune 251 

A Walk in a Churchyard. — Richard C. Trench ^55 

Who that a Watcher doth Remain. — Richard C. 

Trench 258 

Elegiac Poem. — Richard C. Trench 259 

The Lent Jewels 201 

On the Death of an Infant. — Dtrk Smits 263 

Our Wee White Rose. — Gerald Massey 264 

The Little Pilgrim. — William C. Richards 267 

An Expostulation with One who pitied a Dying 

Child. — Caroline May "... 269 

The Morning-glory. — Maria W. Lowell 272 

What was Thy Life? — Richard C. Trench 275 

Baby's Shoes. — William C. Bennett 276 

To a Dead Infant. — Caroline Bowles Southey 278 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction. Death of Children. Anguish of be- 
reaved Parents. Consolation in the Gospel. The 
doctrine of infant salvation stated. 

It is a painful, but ascertained fact, that one- 
half of our human family die within seven years, 
the greater part of these within one year from the 
time of their birth. This were enough to excite 
the inquiry of a pious philanthropist after the rea- 
son and issue of so melancholy a dispensation ; 
nor will he be satisfactorily answered by the 
Scriptural doctrine that death has passed, because 
of sin, upon all the descendants of the first Adam 
2 13 



14 THE FIRST AND SECOND ADAM. 

(Rom. v. 12), unless he can see what part the 
little ones have in the mediation of the second 
Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord. If "life more 
abundantly" (John x. 10), "grace much more 
abounding," over the condemnation (Rom. v. 20), 
be granted to every sinner who trusts in the right- 
eousness of Christ, so that death itself becomes the 
entrance upon a felicity incomparably transcend- 
ing the happiness of man's original innocence ; 
what is the purpose of u God, even the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and 
the God of all comfort" (2 Cor. i. 3), toward those, 
" who are, without their knowledge, partakers of 
the condemnation in Adam," and yet are not 
capable of the personal faith which unites to 
Christ ? Why are they born under the condem- 
nation, to die before they can be brought, through 
their own choice, under grace ? 

The interest of the question is vastly greater 
with those, who have been made to take the dust 
of their beloved ones from their warm bosom?, 
and lay them in the cold, corrupting grave. The 



PARENTAL LOVE. 15 

strength of parental love is in proportion to its 
duties and trials. The mother's love grows with 
the burden near her heart, and, forgetting all her 
past pains, she makes no account of future cares, 
"for joy that her child is born into the world" 
(John xvi. 21); the father, as he receives his off- 
spring within his arms, is conscious of a new tie 
to life, of a fresh tenderness gushing from his soul, 
and of an intense motive for honourable exertion. 
The babe's helpless dependence, anxiety for its 
slender health, hope of its riper years, as the 
harvest of their present watchful zeal, increase 
their fondness, and bind them more closely around 
their precious charge. God himself uses the fideli- 
ty of the father and the mother to show his own : 
"As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear him" (Ps. ciii. 13) ; " Can a 
woman forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion upon the son of her w^omb ? 
Yea, they may forget (it is possible that so mon- 
strous a thing might occur), yet will I not forget 
thee" (Isaiah xlix. 15); and, when he would ex- 



16 PARENTAL ANGUISH. 

press the extent of his regard for our souls, he 
says : " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life" 
(John iii. 16). 

Very bitter, then, must be a parent's anguish, 
if the object of all this tenderness, and nursing, 
and hope, be torn away ; its cradle-bed made 
vacant ; its voice hushed, no more to gladden the 
desolate house ; the many day-dreams, brightly 
picturing for it a life, long, honoured and happy, 
dissipated by sad certainty ; nothing left to tell of 
its brief being here, but a little mound in the 
burial-place, and that inextinguishable yearning 
known only in a heart, which has beat beneath the 
sweet pressure of a child gone to the tomb. It is 
a sorrow, which may be alleviated, and through 
the grace of Jesus sanctified, but never utterly 
stilled while the mourner lives. Other children 
may be given ; the lap and the cradle again filled ; 
but there is a chamber in the soul sacred to the 
unfading image of the early lost ; and dear, above 



HAS IT NO SOLACE? 17 

every other spot of earth, will be the little grave, 
where its chano-ed loveliness was hidden to mould- 
er M out of sight" (Gen. xxxiii. 4). God, by his 
prophet, compares the extreme grief of repentance 
over the sufferings of Christ, " to the bitter mourn- 
ing of a father for his child" (Zech. xii. 10) ; and, 
in another place, speaks of a bereaved mother as 
inconsolable, " refusing to be comforted because 
they are not" (Jer. xxxi. 15). 

Is there no solace for such affliction ? No pro- 
mise of life and immortality shedding it rays upon 
the infant's mortal sleep ? No warrant for faith 
to follow the young spirit, which God gave and 
so soon took away, within the eternity whence 
Christian hope draws strength under every other 
trial? Must love bury her face in despair, and 
yet say, "It is well with the child?" "Blessed 
be the name of the Lord !" 

Some may answer, that departed children are 
in the hands of God ; and, when He has revealed 
nothing positively, we should submit without ques- 
tion to Him, who will do no injustice. But it is 
2* 



18 THE ONLY COMFORT. 

because they are in the hands of God ; because 
he has revealed mercy perfect in justice ; because 
lie delights in salvation, and has no pleasure in 
the death of the sinner ; that we are encouraged 
to search after consolation in the books of his 
Gospel, which were " written for our learning, that 
we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures 
might have hope" (Rom. xv. 4). 

The great, the only sufficient consolation for a 
bereaved Christian parent, that from which all 
other consolation must be derived, is a conviction 
of the child's immortal, sinless, blessed, perfect life 
in heaven ; and the doctrine of infant salvation, 
though (like several other important doctrines of 
the evangelical creed) nowhere stated by so many 
words, is clearly taught throughout the Holy Scrip- 
tures, as will be shown by the following argument. 

Let the ground of our reasoning be understood. 

It is not denied that infants are comprehended 
by the fall of Adam. There is no avoiding the 
conclusion that they are ; nor should we wish to 
avoid it, since that would shut them out of grace 



OUR DOCTRINE GUARDED. 19 

in Christ. "In Adam all die" (1 Cor. xv. 22). 
There is no exception. All, who are in Adam, die; 
and, as death entered by his sin (Rom. v. 12), all, 
who die, are in Adam, fallen with him, and, unless 
redeemed by the grace of the second Adam, in- 
volved by the consequences of his fall. 

Nor is it denied that the moral nature of the 
infant is corrupt. "The Scripture hath concluded 
all under sin" (Gal. iii. 22). There is no excep- 
tion. The image of God was lost by the race, 
when it was lost by Adam, and he begat his chil- 
dren "in his own likeness, after his own image" 
(Gen. v. 3) ; nor can it be restored but "by renew- 
ing grace" (Col. iii. 10) ; wherefore the apostle, 
writing to the converted Ephesians of the power 
of the Holy Spirit toward them and him, says : 
"you hath he quickened, which were dead in tres- 
passes and sins .... and were by nature the 
children of wrath even as others" (Ephes. ii. 1-3). 
The infant Jesus alone, of all our race, brought 
into the world a holy moral nature; because, unlike 
all others, he was not " shapen in iniquity," nor 



20 OUR DOCTRINE STATED. 

" conceived in sin" (Ps. li. 5), but by the power of 
the Holy Ghost" (Luke i. 35). Were the Scrip- 
tures less explicit, the fact would be clear from the 
universal development of sinful tendencies in the 
lives of mankind, which must be attributed to a 
common source in our common nature. 

Yet we d© deny that the mortality of infants, or 
signs of their early sinfulness, are proofs against 
our doctrine. These show that infants need salva- 
tion, not that they are lost. Were they only, 
however perfectly, innocent, they could have no 
part in the redemption provided for sinners, the 
atonement for the guilty, the grace of pardon, the 
church of the sanctified. The Gospel, which pro- 
claims the good news of a Saviour for us, would 
bring to light no life and immortality for them ; 
nor could they join the song of the Christian 
family above : " Unto him that loved us and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood !" Our 
belief is, that 

They are saved by Christ. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER II. 

L The purpose of the Redemption. II. The method op 
Salvation. III. The connection of Christ's office Afl 
Judge with his work as Saviour. 

Our belief, that all, who die before they have 
passed the tender age of infancy, are saved by 
Christ, is drawn, 

I. From the purpose of the redemption : The 
glory of God in the salvation of sinners. 

The glory of Divine justice is more fully dis- 
played by the atonement necessary to the exercise 
of Divine mercy, than it could have been by the 

21 



22 GLORY OF MERCY. 

immediate infliction of extreme punishment upon 
our whole race ; because it shows the loving kind- 
ness of Him, whose authority has been rebelled 
against, and the impartial holiness of His sentences 
denouncing wrath as the penalty of transgression. 
But this was not the great purpose. It was a 
consequence of the main design, which required a 
justification of mercy to the transgressor (Rom. iii. 
23-26), a reconciliation of the sinner's pardon to 
the curse against the guilty (Gal. iii. 10-13). 
"For God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
demn the world ;" the world was condemned al- 
ready ; "but that the world thror^ii him might be 
saved" (John iii. 17, 18). "God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life" (v. 16). At the same time 
we are assured, that there is no other salvation, no 
" other name under heaven given among men 
whereby they can be saved" (Acts iv. 12). Is it, 
then, according to His purpose, who "spared not 
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" 



LIFE MORE ABOUNDING. 23 

(Rom. viii. 32), "and is not willing that any 
should perish" (2 Peter iii. 9), to send away from 
his blessed Presence forever, so very large a part 
of all who are born into this sinful world, as they 
constitute who die while yet infants ; who have 
never consented to Adam's sin by any conscious 
sin of their own, never have insulted his known 
will, never rejected his Son, nor grieved his Holy 
Spirit, but were ushered into life, and brought 
under the condemnation of their race, without their 
personal act or knowledge ? If so, then, so far as 
numbers are concerned, the apostacy exceeds the 
redemption, and the abodes of the lost will be fear- 
fully more populous than the mansions of the 
saved in their Heavenly Father's house. Let us 
harbour no such thought, but reject it altogether 
as utterly discordant with the character and pur- 
pose of Him, who is "in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself" (2 Cor. v. 19). If the Scrip- 
tures have not declared expressly that the dying 
infant goes to his merciful bosom, it is because so 
obvious a truth needed no such testimony. 



24 CHRIST THE ONLY SAVIOUR. 

We draw our doctrine, 

II. From the method of salvation, which is all 
of grace. 

" When we were yet without strength," says 
the apostle, " in due time Christ died for the un- 
godly" (Rom. v. 6). Sinful man was utterly un- 
able to redeem himself, or in any way or degree 
to assist his own salvation ; and, therefore, help 
was laid for him upon One mighty to save, the 
only begotten Son of God incarnate as our Elder 
Brother (Ps. lxxxix. 19). Salvation is the work 
of Christ alone, appointed by the Father and con- 
secrated by the Holy Ghost to be the Alpha and 
Omega, the Author and Finisher of a complete 
redemption. The only expiation for sin he has 
made in his sufferings ; the only righteousness, 
which justifies the sinner, he has wrought out by 
his perfect obedience ; the only sanctification of 
the carnal heart is through the energies of his 
Spirit; the only acceptance of the believer is con- 
sequent upon his intercession ; the only defence 
of the saint is through his mediatorial mastery, 



SANCTIFICATION BY GRACE. 25 

and tlic resurrection of the redeemed only through. 
his victory " over death and him that had the 
power of death." 

The perfect deliverance of his people from sin 
for the glory of God, was, indeed, the purpose of 
the Mediator, for that is their perfect salvation; as 
the apostle writes to Titus (ii. 14): " Who gave 
himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people 
zealous of good works." Good works are the 
moral consequences of his effectual grace : " We 
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works" (Ephes. ii. 10). They are the fruits 
of faith, as many passages show ; the obedience 
wrought in the new-born child of God by the 
Spirit of adoption (Rom. viii. 14) ; the foresigns 
of heaven ; the beginnings of eternal life upon 
earth. So that the man of God should be " care- 
ful to maintain good works," from gratitude to 
Christ, from obedience to his heavenly Father, 
from reverence for the Holy Spirit which dwells 
in him, from a desire to vindicate religion before 
3 



26 SANCTIFICATION BY GRACE. 

the world, and from constant anxiety to make his 
calling and election sure. But, as is evident from 
the fact that they follow, not precede, grace, a sin- 
ner's good works can form no part of his justifica- 
tion with God ; as the apostle writes to Titus (iii. 
5, 6, 7) : " Not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to His mercy he 
saved us, by the washing of regeneration and re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us 
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; 
that, being justified by his grace, we should be 
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." 

That salvation is through faith, and promised 
only to the believer, as we know from many Scrip- 
tures, does not make it the less of grace ; for faith 
is nothing else but a reliance upon the mercy of- 
fered, and, therefore, can have no more merit than 
a criminal's hearty acceptance of a free pardon. 
" By grace are ye saved through faith," savs the 
apostle, " and that not of yourselves, it is the gift 
of God" (Ephes. ii. 8). The whole arrangement 
of salvation through faith is of grace, not at all of 



FAITH, A GRACE. 



ourselves, it is the merciful bounty of God. In- 
deed, faith itself is the effect of grace, being 
wrought in us by Divine power : as the Psalmist 
prays : " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold 
wondrous things out of thy law" (cxix. 1 8) ; and 
the apostle for the Ephesians : "That the God of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may 
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation 
in the knowledge of Him ; the eyes of your under- 
standing being enlightened that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the 
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the 
saints" (Ephes. i. 17, 18). We cannot have 
any knowledge of the truths which we are to 
believe, unless we be illuminated by the Spirit of 
God ; for " the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolish- 
ness unto him ; neither can he know them because 
they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). 
So also Jesus is declared to be "the Author and 
Finisher of our faith" (Ileb. xii. 2) ; and for the 
same reason the disciples said to him : " Lord, in- 



28 FAITH, WHY REQUIRED? 

crease our faith !" looking to the Source of their 
faith for the enlargement of it. 

We may see some reasons why salvation is 
granted only through faith. The blessed Saviour 
has wrought out his meritorious work on account 
of his people, taking, as the second Adam, the 
place of the first, that he might fulfil the con- 
ditions of life, which the other had failed to per- 
form ; and the sinner having by his own act con- 
sented to the sin of his first parent, it is necessary 
that he should, by faith, ratify his acceptance of 
Christ's righteousness, as his Surety under the bet- 
ter covenant. Faith is also the great instrument 
of sanctification, because, through faith, the con- 
verted soul apprehends the meaning of Divine 
truth ; discerns the excellent constraining love of 
Christ, and feels the various motives to obedience 
presented by the Law -and the Gospel. In short, 
without faith, we could not be Christians, for we 
should neither know Christ, nor love him, nor 
serve him. Faith is itself a principal and essential 
part of our salvation here, being the sight of God 



FAITH, WHY REQUIRED? 29 

and communion with him on earth, "the substance 
of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not 
seen" (Heb. xi. 1). 

Since, then, salvation is all of grace, to which 
neither our faith nor our works can contribute any 
merit, why should we not believe that saving 
grace is communicated to the souls of dying in- 
fants ? In their case, the evidence and testimony 
of good works, the evidence of grace within them, 
and their outward testimony to the power of grace, 
are not needed ; for they are not capable of such 
moral acts. 

Neither is personal faith necessary to their union 
with Christ. They are not capable of actual faith, 
have never consented to sin, nor rejected Christ. 
Will the merciful Jesus reject them because of 
such positive inability ? They are, " without their 
knowledge, partakers of the condemnation in 
Adam ;" may they not, " without their knowl- 
edge, be received unto grace in Christ?"* 

* Baptismal Office of the Reformed Dutch Church. 
9# 



30 * FAITH, WHY NOT 

Cut off before the age of moral action, they 
need not the illuminating, upholding, strengthen- 
ing, moving power of faith ; nor does their place 
in the world require from them a profession of it 
before men. The language of all Scripture, both 
Old and New, declares plainly, that under the dis- 
pensation of grace, which began with the first pro- 
mise (Gen. iii. 15), sinners are condemned, because 
of their impenitence and unbelief. " As I live, 
saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live : Turn ye, turn ye from 
your evil ways, for why will ye die, house of 
Israel?" (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). And our beloved 
Lord : " He that believeth is not condemned ; but 
he that believeth not is condemned already, be- 
cause he hath not believed in the name of the only 
begotten Son of God ; and this is the condemna- 
tion, that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds were evil" (John iii. 18, 19). Unbelief, 
obstinate, from impenitence, is the ground of their 



REQUIRED OF INFANTS ? 31 

condemnation. The apostle also, in Romans, 
makes a long and elaborate argument to sliow 
that the heathen are not condemned without simi- 
lar cause, since, though they had not the law spe- 
cially revealed unto the Jews, they " were a law 
unto themselves," "their conscience also bearing 
witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, ac- 
cusing or else excusing one another" (Rom. ii. 
12-15. Compare x. 18-21). Will Christ then 
reject from the benefits of his own infinitely pre- 
cious atonement, the infant that dies before it 
has any conscience, or is capable of repentance 
and faith ? 

Again we say, let not the argument be misun- 
derstood. It is not asserted that the dying infants 
of a fallen race are saved because of their inno- 
cence. There is no salvation by innocence spoken 
of throughout the whole Bible. The doctrine is, 
that they are saved in Christ, the second Adam, 
through his expiation, his righteousness, his inter- 
cession. We believe, that He gathers them all 
under the wings of his covering atonement; that 



32 THE RANSOMED, REGENERATED. 

He clasps tliem safe in his almighty arms ; and 
that the Father, for his sake, receives them among 
the little children of His love, to the blessed man- 
sions of his heavenly house. 

Neither, is it asserted that they are saved with- 
out being renewed by the Holy Ghost. Their 
moral natures are corrupt. They are not fit for 
heaven until they are born of the Spirit. Our 
hope for them proceeds from the assumption, that, 
through the mercy of Christ, the Holy Ghost does 
renew them and sanctify them for the inheritance 
of peace. If they are saved in Christ, his Spirit is 
certainly given them, for He sanctifies all whom 
he redeems. Their incapacity to discern the truth, 
which is the great medium of the Holy Ghost 
(John xvii. 17; 1 Peter i. 22, 23), does not pre- 
vent their being subjects of his sanctifying power. 
There is a previous, immediate work of the Spirit 
upon every soul brought to a saving knowledge of 
Christ, preparing it for the understanding and re- 
ception of the truth. In the parable of the sower 
(Matt, xiii.), the hearer represented as "good 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 33 

ground" (8), understood the truth (23) ; he, re- 
presented by the beaten "way-side" (4), did not 
(19); which is the same with what the apostle 
teaches in an afore-cited passage : " The natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them because they are spiritually discerned" 
(1 Cor. ii. 11-14). The more that the truth of 
God is pressed upon the carnal mind, the greater 
will be its enmity against the God of truth (Rom. 
viii. 7). There must be, as we have seen, an " il- 
luminating" influence, an " opening of the eyes of 
the understanding," before the truth can have its 
effect ; in a word, there must be a preparation of 
the heart, a disposition, which is not natural, to 
receive and embrace the truth. This work of the 
Spirit cannot be expected in the case of reasoning 
persons, when the truth is not presented ; as is 
shown by the command to preach the Gospel, and 
the absence of true religion where the truth is not 
proclaimed. There is a mystery here (every 



34 THE GRACE OF THE SPIRIT 

thing about regeneration is in mystery), which 
has made much dispute among theologians, with- 
out, it must be confessed, their throwing any light 
upon the matter. The fact, however, remains, 
that the Spirit ordinarily (we would say, always), 
when he converts sinners of intelligent years, does 
so with the presentation of truth ; there is an adap- 
tation of his process to their rational, accountable 
natures, which we do not attempt to explain, for 
our Lord, when questioned by Nicodeinus, did 
not; yet there must be a work of the Spirit on 
the heart, opening it (Acts xvi. 14) to receive the 
truth effectually. 

Now, why may not this gracious work, this 
preparation to receive the truth, when its faculties 
are sufficiently developed, be wrought upon the 
heart of the infant, thus fitting it for the light of 
truth in heaven? Nay, we have recorded facts 
proving such gracious influence towards "little 
ones." Our Divine Lord' s human nature was 
sanctified in the womb of his blessed Virgin 
mother. If His extraordinary conception be sup- 



IN LITTLE CHILDREN". 35 

posed to put him beyond the reach of our citation, 
the case of his Fore-runner is certainly within it, 
and he "was filled with the Holy Ghost, even 
from his mother's womb' 7 (Luke i. 15). When 
the happy children were singing hosannas to Him 
in the temple, our holy Master rebuked the cavil- 
ling scribes by saying: "Have ye never read, out 
of the mouth of babes and sucklings I have per- 
fected praise?" (Matt. xxi. 15; Ps. viii. 2). The 
little ones are, if we may so speak, peculiarly fitted 
to be subjects of such saving influences. They 
offer no resistance of pride, or prejudice, or world- 
liness to' the Holy Spirit, and thus, neither 
"wound," nor "grieve," nor "despise" Him; 
wherefore our Saviour on one occasion, having 
set a little child in the midst of his disciples, said : 
"Except ye be converted, and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
God ; whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as 
this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom 
heaven" (Matt, xviii. 3, 4); and on another 
occasion, when they would have kept little chil- 



36 CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. 

dren from being brought to him ; " Forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt, 
xix. 14). If a little child is a pattern of Christian- 
ity, part, at least, of conversion is returning to 
the character of little children. God, as we have 
said, adapts his methods to the circumstances of 
individuals; those, who have the light of the Gos- 
pel, being responsible for the greater privileges 
which they enjoy; and those, who are intended for 
special works, being prepared for them, often from 
the most early age. If a little child be destined to 
attain intelligent years, it may be left to hear the 
Gospel, and be tried, like the fig-tree in the parable 
(Luke xiii. 8, 9), whether it will profit by the 
privilege or not ; but, if God determine to take 
the young spirit out of this life, before it is capable 
of personal faith, he may sanctify it for heaven by 
his immediate regenerating power. Would it not 
be for "the praise of the glory of His grace," 
who sent his only begotten Son, as the Restorer 
of fallen humanity, thus to make heaven glad with 
the salvation of those, whose condemnation can 



CHRIST OUR JUDGE. 37 

i 

spring only from the sin of their first parent? 
Else what is the meaning of his own word, "Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven ?"* 

III. The connection of Christ's office as the final 
Judge of the world, with his w r ork as Saviour, 
affords additional proof of our doctrine. 

The apostle, on Mars' Hill declares that "now 
God commandeth all men every where to repent ; 
because he hath appointed a day, in the which he 
will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given 
assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him 
from the dead" (Acts xvii. 30, 31); which is ac- 
cording to our blessed Lord's own declaration, as 
recorded by the Evangelist (Matt. xxv. 31-46). 

There is especial fitness in the committal of 
final judgment to the hands of the Lord. By his 
undertaking the Mediatorial office, he graciously 
covenanted to save his people in a manner which 
should highly glorify the Divine justice. For this 

* Doddridge's Lectures, cxlviii. Scho. 8. 



38 THE RULE OF 

end, lie so fully satisfied, in his own person, the 
law of God which men had broken, that he ac- 
quired the right to bestow eternal life upon as 
many as would accept the provision of his mercy 
(John i. 12). In token and reward of his perfect 
atonement, "God has highly exalted him, and 
given him a name (authority) which is above every 
name" (Phil. xi. 9) ; and " hath put all things 
under his feet, and given him to be Head over all 
things to his Church" (Ephes. i. 22), that he 
might accomplish the full and final triumph of all 
Iris people over all his and their enemies. "All 
power is given to him in heaven and in earth" 
(Matt, xxviii. 18); all providence is committed to 
his hands. "When, therefore, the end is come, and 
in entire consistence with Divine justice, he admits 
to eternal glory all, who have believed on his name 
and heartily repented of their sins, justice still 
demands, that those, who would not repent and 
avail themselves of his atonement, should receive 
the condign punishment denounced by the law 
against the sinner. The Holy Mediator then as- 



Christ's judgment. 30 

suraes the office of vengeance, and glorifies justice 
by the condemnation of all, who refuse to accept 
the grace, which would have glorified justice in 
their pardon. This is necessary to fulfil the con- 
dition of his delegated power. Upon this principle, 
his exercise of judgment will proceed, as the Scrip- 
tures plainly show. It is they who will not believe 
(John iii. 36 ; Mark xvi. 16), or repent (Luke xvi. 
3, 5), or do good works in his name and for his 
sake (Matt. xxv. 40, 45), that shall be condemned. 
" Every one shall receive the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, whether it 
be good or bad" (2 Cor. v. 10). The dead shall be 
judged out of those things which are written in 
the books, according to their works (Rev. xx. 
12). Nowhere in any account of Christ's judg- 
ment, do we read of men being called to account 
for their concern with the sin of Adam, or (direct- 
ly) for their native corruption. A new test has 
been instituted by Christ : The acceptance or 
rejection of himself. If men reject Him, then 
indeed, their original guilt comes upon them, fear- 



40 INFANTS SAFE. 

fully aggravated by their impenitence under the 
Gospel (John iii. 18, 19); as the apostle says, " If 
the word spoken by angels (the law) was stead- 
fast, and every transgression and disobedience 
received a just recompense of reward, how shall 
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" 
(Heb. ii. 2, 3). 

This being the rale of judgment by Christ, who 
won his power to judge by dying to save, how 
can we believe, that those, who die at a tender 
age, will be sent away from the heaven, which he 
has purchased to bestow graciously upon his 
people ? How can we believe, that they will be 
cast into that horrid place of torment, which he 
has threatened against the despisers of his word, 
and where the remorse of a guilty conscience is 
like a " worm that dieth not," and " a fire that is 
not quenched?" They cannot be charged with 
impenitence, or unbelief, or wilful disobedience to 
his word; neither can they carry with them into 
eternity any conscience of sin ; and since He has 
been at such infinite expense to open a way of 



INFANTS SAFE. 41 

escape from the curse of the fall, he will surely 
save those, who can neither know their danger nor 
escape from it. Let us rather believe, that the 
Good Shepherd, who follows so zealously even the 
wilful wanderer from his fold, will gather the lambs 
with his arm and carry them in his bosom (Isaiah 
xl. 11). Blessed be his name! 

4* 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER III. 

IV. The favour of God in Christ towards little 
Children, as exhibited under the Old Testament. 

The foregoing inferences, fairly drawn from the 
plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, our ever blessed 
Lord, ought to satisfy every inquiring mind, and 
fill us with adoring, joyful gratitude, for such 
triumphs of redeeming love. The whole tenor of 
the Gospel is glad tidings of good will toward men. 
It speaks of mercy to the fullest extent (Heb. vii. 
25), wherever its consistency w T ith justice is not 
prevented by the obstinate impenitence of sinners; 
and claims our highest praise, by putting beyond 

43 



44 GOD DELIGHTS TO SAVE. 

doubt the goodness, forbearance and holiness of 
God. Thus, we should carefully avoid such inter- 
pretations of the Gospel, as would make Christ a 
minister of sin (Gal. ii. 17), by affording the 
impenitent hopes of safety; but our caution 
becomes unbelief, when we confine the grace of 
salvation within closer limits than those which God 
has fixed. The great truth of the Gospel is, that 
God delights to save, of which he has given the 
strongest possible assurance in the mission of his 
own only begotten Son (John iii. 16). He has 
commanded his Gospel to be preached throughout 
the w T orld, and so worded his invitations as to 
show, that whosoever will, may come and take of 
the waters of life freely (Rev. xxii. 17). There- 
fore, though He had given no tokens of regard for 
those, who, because of their tender age, cannot 
come unto him, nor put forth their hands to 
receive his grace ; the silence itself, connected with 
the gracious spirit of what he has revealed, would 
warrant us in believing that not one of the little 
ones should perish. But He is not silent respect- 



BABES IN THE COVENANT. 45 

ing them, nor has he refused them tokens of his 
special regard, as may be shown abundantly from 
his Holy Scriptures. 

IV. The favour of God in Christ toward little 
children, confirms our doctrine. 

This favour appears in the very first promise of 
mercy, for it was by the seed of the woman that 
God declared the head of the serpent should be 
bruised (Gen. iii. 15). When, therefore, our first 
mother embraced her first-born, she saw proof of 
the coming salvation in her babe, and exclaimed : 
" I have gotten a man from the Lord" (Gen. iv. 1). 
So, throughout subsequent ages, believers under 
the Old Testament looked upon their offspring as 
peculiarly precious, because proofs of Divine faith- 
fulness. Farther to consecrate and encourage this 
sentiment, God appointed in the family of Abra- 
ham the rite of circumcision, by which the parent 
manifested his faith that God was the God of his 
child. It was not possible for them to believe the 
promise of a future Redeemer, without seeing that 
their babes were included by its blessings. The 



46 god's care 

child, if he lived to grow up, might cut himself off 
from the covenant by his own sin (Ex. xii. 1 5 ; 
xxxi. 14) ; the first-born of woman became the 
murder-cursed Cain ; but the babe, as a babe, was 
from his birth an object of the Divine favour and 
compassion. 

Nor was this regard confined to the children of 
God's believing people ; though, for obvious rea- 
sons, their privileges were greater. Among the 
grounds of condemnation, which, by his prophet, 
He denounces against the worshippers of Baal, not 
the least is, that they had shed the blood of many 
" innocents" (Jer. xix. 4) ;* alluding, doubtless, as 
the fifth verse shows, to the cruel custom of sacri- 
ficing young children in honour of the demon. It 
was an aggravation of the crime that these chil- 
dren were descendants of the covenanted fathers, 
from whose faith their more immediate parents 
had apostatized ; yet the prophet does not speak 
of them in that character, but as " innocents," and, 

* Compare Ezekiel xvi. 17, "my children." 



OF INNOCENTS. 47 

therefore, because of their helpless innocency, pe- 
culiarly objects of the Divine care.* 

Another remarkable passage, often cited by ad- 
vocates of our doctrine, occurs in the book of 
Jonah (iv. 10, 11), where God, answering with 
rebuke the unmerciful complaint of the disap- 
pointed prophet, says : " Should I not spare Nine- 
veh, that great city, wherein are more than six 
score thousand persons that cannot discern be- 
tween their right hand and their left?" by which 
is meant infants. What we are particularly to re- 
mark, in these two citations, is the reason which 
God assigns for his tender concern respecting 
"little ones;" their personal innocence, their in- 
capacity of actual moral wrong. Their adult 
fathers were guilty on their own account, and 
He might with justice have destroyed them ; but 

* The author here adopts the opinion of some very able commenta- 
tors; but he is aware that others refer the "innocent blood" also to 
the martyrdom of prophets and other just persons. Still, the sacri- 
ficed children are included, and the inference is strengthened by the 
babes being put in the same category with holy men. 



48 god's care 

the little ones, who "could not discern between 
their right hand and their left," the "innocent," 
were regarded by him with affectionate compas- 
sion. 

Now, asks an excellent writer, commenting on 
the xixth of Jeremiah : " Can it be supposed that 
He, who undertook, in such tremendous language, 
to avenge their temporal injuries, was at the same 
time intending to destroy them for ever ; that He 
left those murdered babes an eternal prey to 
devils, in whose obscure and sanguinary orgies 
their innocent blood had been shed ?"* And 
again he says, on the ivth of Jonah, " Of the six 
score thousand Ninevite children, about sixty 
thousand were probably removed from life while 
they knew not their right hand from their left. It 
seems incredible, that after these expressions of re- 
gard, such infants, dying without having forfeited 
this tender concern by personal transgression, 

* Rev. Dr. Harris' " Grounds of Hope for the Salvation of all Dying 
In Infancy." London, 1821. 



OF INNOCENTS. 49 

should be excluded from the presence of God 
for ever." 

Some may think that the force of these passages 
is neutralized by others, where God commanded 
little ones to be slain with their idolatrous parents, 
as in the case of the Midianites (Numbers xxxi. 
17); but we have nowhere denied (what, indeed, 
every hour's observation should convince us of), 
that children may be involved by the temporal 
consequences of their parent's crimes, as those of 
Nineveh would have been if the repentance of the 
city had not turned away the Divine vengeance, 
and as the little ones of idolatrous Israel were 
when sacrificed unto Baal. God in ancient times, 
as now, punished national sins with national cala- 
mities ; and, when his decree went forth to destroy 
a nation by the sword, the children were not 
spared any more than they are from a pestilence 
or earthquake. Besides, his providence towards 
Israel was peculiar. His design was, for wise 
reasons, to keep them in the land of Canaan as a 
separate people, their Abrahamic lineage pure, and 
5 



50 god's care of innocents. 

their Divine religion uncorrupt. Therefore, he 
cleared the land of those idolatrous nations which 
had possessed it, and provoked him to anger. 
Had any number, particularly of the males, been 
permitted to survive, there must have been con- 
stant insurrections, a depravation of their blood, 
and a tendency to idolatry. Severe as the mea- 
sure was, and far from justifying imitation by 
men, it was as necessary to the conservation of 
Israel, as it was deserved by the Canaanite tribes. 
It is, however, by no means a proof that God pur- 
sued the little ones of his enemies with vengeance 
in another w r orld. They passed from under the 
sword of Moses, punishing their nation for the 
capital crime of idolatry, before that judgment seat 
where every soul is tried by its own acts. If our 
doctrine be true, we see the light of saving mercy 
shed over the darkest and bloodiest pages of tem- 
poral providence. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

V. The favour of God in Christ to little Children, as 

SHOWN UNDER THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

With the fulness of time, the light of hope for 
the dying infant, which before w T as glimmering, 
became clear and bright. 

V. Among the characteristics of Christianity, 
not the least remarkable and beautiful, is its tender 
favour towards little children. 

The great Forerunner of our Lord came not in 
the strength of a full-grown man. The first inti- 
mation, that the kingdom of God was nigh at 
hand, was given in the promise of a little child : 

51 



52 THE INFANT FORERUNNER 

"Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard; 
and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and 
thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt 
have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at 
his birth. And he shall be great in the sight of 
the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong 
drink ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, 
even from his mother's -womb" (Luke i. 13, 14, 
15). So, when the promise was fulfilled, and the 
happy father held his son in his arms, he prophe- 
sied over him with gladness, and said, "Thou, 
child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest !" 
(Luke i. 67-80). The Harbinger of the Gospel 
was a sanctified little child. 

Then, when to the humble shepherds in the 
fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, the 
angel of the Lord came, and the glory of the Lord 
shone round about them, what was his announce- 
ment of good tidings of great joy, which should be 
to all people ? " Unto you is born this day, in the 
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye 



OF THE INFANT SAVIOUR. 53 

shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, 
lying in a manger" (Luke ii. 8, 12). They ran 
with haste unto Bethlehem, and there they found 
the blessed Virgin Mother gazing upon her mys- 
terious CHILD, already named by the Holy Ghost, 
Jesus, the Saviour ; Emmanuel, God with us. 

Wise men from the east, moved by traditions of 
ancient prophecy, the appearance of the star of 
which Balaam had spoken (Num. xxiv. 17), and, 
doubtless, by inspiration from on high, came with 
princely gifts to worship Him that was born King 
of the Jews; and "Lo! the star which they had 
seen in the east, went before them till it came and 
stood near where the young child lay; and 
when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceed- 
ing great joy. And when they were come into 
the house, they saw the young child, with Mary, 
his mother, and fell down and worshipped Him 
(Matt, ii. 1-11). 

Can any one read these passages, without per- 
ceiving that our Divine Lord was a Saviour worthy 
of all adoration and trust from his very birth ? It 
5* 



54 THE INFANT SAVIOUR 

was, indeed, necessary for Him to be born of a 
woman, that he might be truly man ; and, having 
been born, to pass through the years which inter- 
vene before the full age, when, agreeably to Jewish 
rule, he might assume his office publicly. We 
see, also, in his feeble beginning, a parable of his 
cause, which, though apparently weak and of little 
worldly account at first, is destined to attain the 
highest glory. These, however, were not all the 
reasons why he came as a little child, yet a Saviour ; 
passed through all the weaknesses, sorrows, and 
trials of infancy, being tried in all points as little 
ones are ; and rewarded the care of his pious 
mother with child-like, affectionate observance. 
It was to teach us that he is the Saviour of little 
children, who bear his likeness more closely than 
the best disciple of mature years ever can, as well 
as of the adults who believe in his name. It was 
to claim the whole world of infancy as his own, 
however men might reject his grace. It was to 
assure the anxious mother bending over his image 
in her child, that 



OF INFANTS. 55 

"She may trust her sweet babe through the hour of 

danger, 
To the mercy of Him, who was laid in a manger." 

Nor did the "holy child jesus" wait long for 
an opportunity of saving his little fellows. The 
cruel Herod, fearful of losing his throne because 
the true King of the Jews was born, "sent forth 
and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, 
and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and 
under" (Matt. ii. 16) ; and, though the one he sought 
was carried beyond his malice, hundreds (or as 
some think, thousands) of babes and sucklings 
yielded their young lives to a persecution of the 
infant Saviour. On earth, "in Rama was there a 
voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and a great 
mourning; Rachel weeping for her children and 
refusing to be comforted, because they were not" 
(Luke ii. 18) ; but in heaven there was great joy, 
as the happy angels bore on rejoicing wings to 
their Father's house the young redeemed, a numer- 
ous proof that Jesus had entered bis kingdom and 



56 THE INFANTRY OF 

claimed little children for his own. The rage of 
Herod against the infant King, but sent the little 
ones to shout, among the blessed, His praises, 

" Who brought them there, 
Without a wish, without a care." 

Dear Matthew Henry, here sweetly though 
quaintly says : "A passive testimony was given 
hereby to the Lord Jesus, as when he was in the 
womb he was witnessed to by a little child leaping 
in the womb for joy at his approach ; so now, at 
two years old, he had contemporary witnesses to 
him of the same age. They shed their blood for 
him, who afterwards shed his blood for them. 
These were the infantry of the noble army of 
martyrs. If these infants were thus baptized 
with blood, though it were their own, into the 
Church triumphant, it could not be said but that, 
with what they got in heaven, they were abun- 
dantly recompensed for all they lost on earth. 
4 Out of the mouth of these babes and sucklings 



THE ARMY OF MARTYRS. 57 

God did perfect praise, otherwise it is not good to 
the Almighty that he should thus afflict' " Good 
Jeremy Taylor speaks to the same import: "Jesus, 
when Himself was safe, might have secured these 
poor babes of Bethlehem, with thousands of diver- 
sions or avocations of Herod's purposes, or by 
discovering in some safe manner, not unknown 
to the Divine wisdom, his own escape ; but it did 
not so please God. He is Lord of his own 
creatures, and hath an absolute dominion over our 
lives, and he had an end to serve upon these 
babes, and an end of justice upon Herod ; and to 
the children he made such compensation, that they 
had no reason to complain that they were so soon 
made stars, when they shone in their little orbs 
and participations of eternity ; for so the sense of 
the Church has been, that they having died the 
death of martyrs, though incapable of making the 
choice, God supplied the defects of their will by 
his own entertainment of the thing."* 

* " They were too young to fight, but not too young to be crowned 
with victory." — Cyprian, 



58 JESUS BLESSING 

These auguries aud promises of favour to little 
children, in our blessed Lord's birth and nursing 
age, are most sweetly and richly confirmed by 
many passages and occasions of his riper ministry. 
Our beloved Master took peculiar pleasure in 
manifesting his tender love for little ones, and 
showed peculiar displeasure at those who doubted 
nis willingness to receive them. 

There are two remarkable instances of this pre- 
served by the Evangelists ; the one by Matthew 
xviii. 1-14, by Mark ix. 35-37, by Luke ix. 46- 
48; the other by Matthew xix. 13, 14, by Mark x. 
14, and by Luke xviii. 15-17. We shall examine 
this last first, as the former presents us with ad- 
ditional matter for consideration. 

Matt. xix. 13, 14. "Then were brought unto 
him little children, that he should put his hands on 
them and pray (that he should touch them, Mark 
and Luke). And the disciples rebuked them 
(those that brought them, Mark), and when Jesus 
saw it, he was much displeased. But Jesus said, 
Suffer (the) little children (to come unto me, Mark 



LITTLE CHILDREN. 59 

and Luke) and forbid them not to come unto me, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven (God, Mark, 
and Luke). (Verily, I say unto you, whosoever 
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, he shall not enter therein, Mark). And he 
laid his hands on them (and he took them up in 
his arms, put his hands upon them, Mark) and 
blessed them." 

Who they were, that brought these little ones 
to Jesus, we are not told ; most likely it was their 
parents, perhaps, some benevolent lovers of chil- 
dren, who had faith in his blessing, yes, even in 
his touch. They were very little children, for 
Luke uses the same word, which is applied to the 
Babe in the manger. " Christ," says Matthew 
Henry in his Sermon on Mark x. 16, "came to 
teach, to heal, and to bless. These little children 
were not brought to Him to be taught, for they 
were too young ; nor to be healed, for we are not 
told that they were sick ; but to be blessed, as his 
laying on them his hands signified." Now mark 
not only the tenderness of Jesus, but the reason he 



60 OF SUCH IS 

assigns for it. He takes them up in his arms ; he 
lays their little heads in his holy bosom ; he blesses 
them with Divine authority. He does so the more 
emphatically, to rebuke those who would have 
kept them from him. The Master Himself, the 
Head of the Church, the perfect Example of the 
Church, clasps little children gladly to his heart. 
For what reason ? Because of a tenderness, natu- 
ral in so loving a spirit as his, toward helpless, 
smiling babes ? That might well be. Or, that He 
might recommend little children to the care of his 
disciples ? This was certainly true. But the main 
reason he gives himself: " Of such is the kingdom 
of God." What can this mean, for our Lord was 
not wont to speak ambiguously when instructing 
his disciples, but that which the words express 
plainly. "Of such is the kingdom of God," or, 
little children, as such, belong to God's kingdom 
by his gracious determination. If they should 
grow to years of personal responsibility, their cir- 
cumstances would be different, and personal faith 
would be necessary for their salvation; because, 






THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 61 

then they would be no longer, except they were 
regenerate, such as his kingdom is made up of. 
But, if such as were of his kingdom died before 
they sinned by rejecting his grace, could they be 
rejected by Him, and sent away to the kingdom 
of Satan ? 

We are not to be turned from this ground, by 
the question, How can they, who are once of the 
kingdom of heaven, in after years lose their part 
of it ? We take the words of our Lord as we find 
them, nor shall any theological dilemma stumble 
us into unbelief of them. God can reconcile diffi- 
culties which we cannot. 

We, however, can see no difficulty here. The 
Master does not speak of any particular child or 
children, but of the character and state in which 
all infants are. While they remain in that state 
and retain that character, they are of the kingdom 
of God ; when they pass from the one or lose the 
other, they are beyond the condition which is 
covered by the mercy of Christ. If any of those 
little ones live to bring condemnation on their 
6 



62 OF SUCH IS 

souls by obstinate impenitence, it is clear that they 
never belonged to the elect of grace ; but, if any 
die before such personal sin, it is equally clear that 
they are safe, because our Lord says, " Of such is 
the kingdom of God." He is speaking of them in 
the circumstances of little children, not as possible 
adults ; just as God, under the Old Testament, pro- 
mised blessing to the children of circumcision, 
thousands of whom, in riper years, lost the advan- 
tage of the covenant ; though we doubt not that 
every one of them dying as infants were admitted 
to glory. When God determines the salvation of 
a soul, he also determines the means of its prepara- 
tion for heaven ; and we know nothing of his par- 
ticular purposes but by their results in personal 
character. The dying infant has the character to 
which heaven is promised. 

It may be said in reply, that the Saviour is 
speaking of the character, which his disciples 
should cultivate, if they would enter the kingdom 
of heaven; not of the little children themselves. 
We admit the first ; we deny the second. Little 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 63 

children are set before us as types, examples of 
that temper to which only the kingdom of God is 
promised ; but what right has any one to say, that 
the Master did not mean the little children them-" 
selves, when he directly points to them ? Besides, 
if it be true that all, who become as little children, 
are saved, is not the inference irresistible, that 
those, whom they become like, are saved also, 
when they go as little children before God ? Why 
this painful logic to shut out from heaven those, 
who die in the very arms of Christ ? We should 
tremble to adopt it, lest we should come under the 
rebuke of those, who would have forbidden His lit- 
tle ones to come unto him. We can understand cau- 
tion in so rendering Scriptures, that we give no en- 
couragement to those who wilfully are impenitent ; 
but what mischief can result from a belief, that He, 
who when on earth blessed little children, blesses 
them, eternally when as little children they go to 
him in heaven ? Let us rather, my reader, rejoice 
in a faith which gives to the Almighty, just and 



64 FORBID THEM NOT. 

most merciful Saviour, the glory of so vast a sal- 
vation. 

The other passage of which we spoke, occurs in 
Matthew xviiith, from the first to the end of the 
fourteenth verse: "At the same time came the 
disciples of Jesus unto him, saying, who is the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? And Jesus 
called a little child unto him, and set him in the 
midst of them ; and said, Verily, I say unto you, 
Except ye be converted and become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble him- 
self as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one 
such little child in my name, receiveth me. But, 
whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which 
believe in me, it were better that a millstone were 
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depths of the sea. .... Take heed 
that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I 
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do alway 
behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. 



OFFEND THEM NOT. 65 

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost. How think ye ? If a man have an 
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, 
doth he not leave the ninety and nine and goeth 
into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone 
astray ? And if so be that he find it, verily I say 
unto you, He rejoiceth more of that sheep than 
of the ninety and nine that went not astray. Even 
so it is not the will of your Father which is in 
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish" 
(Compare Mark ix. 33 to the end, and Luke ix. 
46-48). 

Our Lord here answers the question of the 
Twelve, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven ? by showing them the character of a true 
Christian disciple, and the great regard he has for 
all those who bear such a character. To do this, 
he takes for his text a little child ; not any par- 
ticular child, but the one upon whom his eye 
chanced to fall. He " calls" the little one to him ; 
from which and the term in the original, we may 
suppose that it was a " child" able to walk, though 
6* 



66 CHILDHOOD, THE EMBLEM 

" little." He sets him in the midst of the listen- 
ing circle, and says : " Verily I say unto you, Ex- 
cept ye be converted and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this 
little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom 
of heaven." Childhood is the emblem of Chris- 
tianity. Childlikeness is Christian character ; and 
he, who is most like a little child, is greatest in 
His kingdom, the most advanced and honoured 
disciple, because his " conversion" (8 v.) from a 
contrary spirit is the most thorough. 

Having stated the character which He most ap- 
proves, he goes on to show his extreme regard for 
all who possess it : " Whoso shall receive one such 
little child in my name receiveth me." This verse 
applies equally to little children and childlike 
disciples. In the next He speaks of faith, which 
shows that he is now referring more particularly 
to the true disciple : " Whosoever shall offend one 
of these little ones, which believe in me, it were 
better that a millstone were hanged about his 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 6? 

neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of 
the sea." Yet his regard for those, to whom he 
compares the docile, teachable, meek-minded be- 
liever, cannot be less than for the believer himself. 
He takes the believers part, because the believer 
is like a little child. He gives several arguments, 
why all such little children and childlike believers 
should receive from us this kind and considerate 
treatment 

(1). They are identified with Himself. " Who- 
so receiveth one such little child in my name, re- 
ceiveth me." They are united to him ; he sympa- 
thizes with them ; they are his own. 

(2). They are under the care of his angels. 
"Take heed, how ye despise one of these little 
ones", for in heaven their angels do always behold 
the face of my Father, which is in heaven." Christ 
is the Lord of angels, Jehovah of Hosts ; and he 
brings all his glorious retinue to serve him in his 
office of Saviour; as the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews says of the angels : "Are they not all 
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, 



68 WHY LITTLE CHILDREN 

who shall be heirs of salvation ?" (Heb. i. 14). In 
the Old Testament, angels were declared to be 
guardians of God's people (Ps. xci. 11, 12). Here 
our blessed Master confirms the truth. His angels 
are his people's angels, standing ready before God 
to be sent upon any mission that concerns the 
welfare of his little ones : little children and child- 
like believers. Some find here the doctrine of 
particular guardian angels : whether that be true 
or not we are unprepared to say ; but, certainly, 
all Christ's people are under the guardianship of 
Christ's angels. There is not one of all the radi- 
ant, winged spirits who do God's will in provi- 
dence, that is not ready to be a servant of those 
whom Jesus numbers among his little ones. 

(3). They are peculiarly dear to Him, as Saviour 
of the lost (11-13); which he illustrates by an 
instance of a good shepherd seeking after a lost 
one from his flock, and bringing it back with joy. 
So does he love his " little ones" for the very pains 
it cost him to win them from ruin ; and they are 



ARE DEAR TO CHRIST. 69 

recommended to our love by the greatness of his 
love towards them and us. 

(4). The gracious will of our heavenly Father 
concerning them (14 verse): "Even so it is not 
the will of your. Father, which is in heaven, that 
one of these little ones should perish." The 
heavenly Father delights in the salvation of his 
little ones ; and, therefore, they should be precious 
in our sight Their Father is our Father; and 
He, who is willing to save us, is willing to save 
them. That childlike believers are included by 
the term " little ones," may be cheerfully admit- 
ted ; but the reference is most direct to little chil- 
dren ; for it is not " such little ones," but " these 
little ones." The Master is not speaking of the 
Twelve, but to them. He is answering their ques- 
tion ; and they are encouraged to trust in their 
heavenly Father's care, only so far as they were 
converted to be like little children. If it be our 
heavenly Father's will, that none who are like lit- 
tle children should perish ; how can it be, that lit- 
tle children, who are set before them as emblems 



70 THE HEAVENLY FATHER^ WILL 

of simplicity and innocence, patterns for imitation, 
standards of character, should perish ? It is diffi- 
cult to understand, how any sincere reader can 
hesitate about such a plain inference. The words 
of our Lord do not render their salvation certain, 
if they should come to years of intelligence. He 
is speaking of little children, and of those like lit- 
tle children in character. If the former should 
pass beyond the condition of little children, with- 
out possessing a childlike character, they would 
then be beyond the ground covered by this gra 
cious text ; but, if they died as little children, in 
either sense, it is not the will of our heavenly 
Father that they should perish. They are within 
the promise and safe. Those, whom the ever mer- 
ciful Jesus unites with Himself; whom he com- 
mends in his name to the tenderness of his people ; 
whom he commits to the guardianship of holy 
angels ; and of whom it is the will of His Father, 
our Father and their Father, that not one should 
perish ; must, dying in a state so fenced in, and 
made holy by his Saviour-sympathy, go to be 



THAT NO LITTLE ONE SHOULD PERISH. 71 

among the blessed in that heaven, to the kingdom 
of which he has declared they belong, even while 
on earth. 

These inferences are confirmed by our blessed 
Lord'6 rebuke to the chief priests and scribes, 
when they were sore displeased at the hosannas 
of the children in the temple (Matt. xxi. 15, 16): 
" Jesus said unto them, Yea, have ye never read : 
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou 
hast perfected praise?" This Scripture is taken 
from the second verse of the eighth Psalm, where 
we read : " Out of the mouth of babes and suck- 
lings, hast thou ordained strength, because of thine 
enemies ; that thou mightest still the enemy and 
the avenger." Whatever other meaning or refer- 
ence these words of prophecy may have, the use 
which our Master makes of them, demonstrates an 
intention on the part of God, to derive even from 
babes and sucklings, a praise magnifying his grace 
by Jesus Christ over all the power, and arts, and 
cavils of his and our enemies. Out of the mouth 
of such little ones he can ordain strength ; his gra- 



72 PRAISE PERFECTED 

cious influences can reach their young hearts, and 
throughout eternity, their hosannas, which were 
so welcome to Him in the temple on earth, shall 
swell his triumphs in the temple above. Neither 
the little one, nor the suckling babe, shall be left 
in the power of the enemy. The strength of Him, 
who came as a "tender plant" (Is. liii. 2), (or, as 
the Septuagint translates, a tender or sucking 
child, *) will redeem out of the power of the 
avenger, the world of infancy; their souls shall 
be His trophies of victory, and their immortal 
hosannas celebrate his complete conquest over 
him that had the power of death (Heb. ii. 14). 

No, thou gentle, compassionate Saviour, who 
wert once the Babe of Bethlehem, and now upon 
thy throne, art worshipped as the Holy Child 
Jesus (Acts iv. 27), it is not thy will that any lit- 
tle one shall perish ! The arms which were open 
to them on earth, will receive them in heaven. 
They shall lie there in that holy bosom, to which 
they were clasped here. Death is thy ministering 

* See Joseph Mode's Sermon on Psalm yiiL 2. 



OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES. 73 

angel, to bear them up to thee. Sweet, excelling 
heaven's ordinary praise, to thy ear must be the 
voices of their countless multitudes, as they bless 
thee in the song of the redeemed, thee once a 
Babe like them, and now their Elder Brother ! 

Dry your tears bereaved parents, or turn them 
into floods of joy. The Voice that called them 
away, was his who said : They belong to my 
kingdom. The hand that took them from you, 
was His, who once laid his benediction on the in- 
fant's head. He has set them in the midst of his 
admiring disciples above. They are now the dar- 
ling little ones of their heavenly Father's house. 
The angels, who watched over their cradle beds, 
are now rejoicing over their immortal beauty, as 
lambs safely folded where the spoiler can never 
come. Heed them not, who would bid you doubt ; 
point them to the recorded censure of the Master, 
displeased at so unmerciful an unbelief. " Of such 
is the kingdom of heaven." " Out of the mouth 
of" your " babe," Christ's " praise" is " perfected" 
in the temple on high ! 






EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER V. 

VI. The multitude of the Redeemed out of all nations, 
includes all infants. vindication of providence. the 
glory of Christ in his little ones. 

VI. The multitude of the redeemed. 

" I beheld," says the apostle in the Revelation 
(vii. 9, 10), "and lo, a great multitude, whom no 
man could number, of all nations and kindreds, 
and people, and tongues, stood before the throne 
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, 
and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud 

75 



76 PROGRESS OF TRUTH SLOW, 

voice, saying : Salvation to our God, which sitteth 
upon the throne, and to the Lamb !" 

Such a promise of so glorious a consummation 
is an unspeakable relief, and a most welcome re- 
buke to our hearts, over which melancholy doubts 
will come, as we think of man's vast family, and 
of the small number comparatively, who have 
given open proof of being reconciled to God, by 
the infinitely meritorious death of his Son. How 
few even of the called are chosen ! and, though, 
doubtless, God has children unknown to the world, 
how many of those who profess his name, walk 
unworthily of their high vocation ! How large a 
portion of mankind the Gospel has never reached ! 
It shall yet prevail, we are assured by the word 
which cannot lie, over the whole earth, from the 
rising even to the setting of the sun ; but how 
many nations, and tribes, and tongues, rose and 
passed away under heathen darkness, before the 
advent of Jesus ! Since then, how many lands, 
islands and continents, teeming with population, 
have remained ignorant of God and imbruted by 



YET GRACE ABOUNDS: 77 

Idolatry ! How slow the progress of truth, while 
every moment thousands are dying into eternity, 
without the revelation of hope ! 

Has Christ, then, we painfully inquire, Christ, 
who was sent out of Divine love to " the world" 
(John iii. 16) ; Christ, who made a propitiation for 
the sins, not of one nation, but of " the whole 
world ;" Christ, to whose redemption is promised 
a gracious success, " much more abounding" over 
the apostacy (Rom. v. 20, 21) ; has he no trophies 
of his saving power, from those long, dark centu- 
ries, and the vast regions which have lain or still 
lie under the shadow of death ? 

The holy words of the beloved apostle, assures 
us that He has; and that there is not, has not 
been, never shall be, a nation, or kindred, or peo- 
ple, or tongue, which will not be found to have 
swelled that " great multitude, which no man can 
number," who shall stand, sinless and victorious, 
before the throne, ascribing salvation to God, who 
sitteth thereon, and to the Lamb. Yet the Scrip- 
tures positively assert, that there is no salvation 



78 THE HEATHEN WITHOUT GOD, 

hut in Christ, nor any other name under heaven 
given among men, whereby they can be saved 
(Acts iv. 12) ; that they who are " without Christ," 
" having no hope," are " without God" (Ephes. ii. 
12), "having the understanding darkened, being 
alienated from the life of God, through the igno- 
rance that is in them" (Ephes. iv. 18); and that 
" the wicked shall be cast into hell, with all the 
nations (or heathen) which forget God" (Ps. ix. 
17). These and other passages put it beyond 
question, that the heathen are not absolved from 
their moral accountability for their actual sins, nor 
are received into grace through Christ; though, 
doubtless, God in his judgment will mercifully con- 
sider their ignorance ; and their never having re- 
jected the Saviour, renders them far less guilty 
than the impenitent of Christian lands. The 
apostle Peter, indeed, at the conversion of Cor- 
nelius, says, that " Of a truth God is no respecter 
of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth 
God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of 
him" (Acts x. 34, 35) ; nor should we dare deny 



THEIR LITffLE ONES SAFE IN DEATH. 79 

to the sovereignty of God, the power of inspiring 
some among heathen nations with a longing after 
truth and duty, to which He will have a gracious 
regard; hut, from what we know of the heathen, 
such instances must be rare ; and the words of 
Peter, it must be recollected, were spoken in refer- 
ence to one, who, living among many Jews, had a 
knowledge of the true God, whom he served as far 
as he had light. 

It is difficult, therefore, to account for the mul- 
titude of the redeemed out of all nations, except 
by believing that all among the heathen, who die 
before they have reached the age of accountability, 
are saved by the grace of Him, who has claimed 
early childhood as a part of his kingdom ; a part, 
as John Newton says, so greatly " exceeding the 
aggregate of adult believers, that comparatively 
speaking, his kingdom may be said to consist of 
little children."* They are born without their 

* The whole passage, from which the above quotation is made, 
bears so closely upon our argument, that we subjoin it. 

"I think it at least highly probable, that when our Lord says, 



80 john newton's 

knowledge of heathen parents, but by no intelli- 
gent act have they consented to idolatry, or sin of 
any kind ; for what shall they be condemned by 



1 Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven,' he does not only intimate the neces- 
sity of our becoming like little children in simplicity, as a qualification 
without which (as he expressly declares in other placos) we cannc* 
enter into his kingdom ; but informs us of a fact, that the number of 
infants who are effectually redeemed unto God by his blood, so 
greatly exceeds the aggregate of adult believers, that, comparatively 
speaking, his kingdom may be said to consist of little children. The 
apostle speaks of them as not having sinned after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression (Rom. v. 14) ; that is, with the consent of their 
understanding and will. And when he says, ' We must all appear be- 
fore the judgment seat of Christ,' he adds, ' that every man may give 
an account of what he hath done in the body, whether it be good or 
•bad' (2 Cor. v. 10). But children, who die in their infancy, have not 
done any thing in the body, either good or bad. It is true, they are 
by nature evil, and must, if saved, be the subjects of a supernatural 
change. And though we cannot conceive how this change is to be 
wrought, yet I suppose few are so rash as to suppose it impossible 
that any infants can be saved. The same Power that produces this 
change in some can produce it in all; and, therefore, I am willing to 
believe, till the Scripture forbids me, that infants of all nations and 
kindreds, without exception, who die before they are capable of sin- 
ning after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who have done 



OPINION. 81 

Him, who, while he will by no means clear the 
guilty, so " delighteth in mercy," that he was born 
of a woman to die upon the cross, the Saviour of 
Man ? 

With what glory does this faith of ours invest 
the adorable Redeemer, upon whose word we 
trust, and whom we hope to worship with sinless 
praises among the shining host forever ! Scarcely 
can we see that his victory over the last enemy is 
complete, if death be permitted to hold the sweet- 
est, fairest, least stained, and largest portion of our 
sin-stricken race, in his gloomy prison-house ; and 
the harvest of salvation will be scanty, compared 
to the destroying angel's, if the young blossoms of 

nothing in the body, of which they can give an account, are included 
in the election of grace. They are born for a better world than this ; 
they just enter this state of tribulation ; they quickly pass through it ; 
'their robes are washed white in the blood of the Lamb;' and they 
are admitted for his sake before the throne. Should I be asked to 
draw the line, to assign the age at which children begin to be account- 
able for actual sin, it would give me no pain to confess my ignorance. 
'The Lord knoweth.' " (Works of Rev. John JS r ewton. Am. Ed. 
Vol. IV. pp. 552, 553. Serm. 4S.) 



82 THE GLORY OF CHRIST 

humanity, cut down by his hasty sickle, may never 
rise again to praise their Creator's skill in the gar- 
den of the Lord. The " mighty Reaper" has not 
gathered the thick harvest for his own garner. He 
goes forth in all ages, through all lands, among all 
nations and kindreds, rescuing from sin, and crime, 
and sorrow, and eternal doom, the infant images 
of Christ and Christianity. He bears them far 
away, to be crowned with life and immortality, 
where they shall be safe in their Father's house, 
and on their Saviour's bosom. He anticipates 
their sad repentance for actual sins ; their possi- 
ble rejection of grace ; the severe discipline ne- 
cessary to educate and purify the adult transgres- 
sor for the company of angels. Not one of all 
the angels, who do ever behold the face of our 
Father which is in heaven, serves more effectually 
the Redeeming Jehovah of Hosts ; for, through 
death, Christ abolishes the power of death over 
the kingdom of infancy, transforms it into the 
greatest and most beautiful portion of his heaven- 
ly kingdom, and, gathering the lambs in his 



IN HIS LITTLE ONES, 83 

arms, fills the fold above with their happy 
myriads. 

The most mysterious passages in the providence 
of God toward man are thus richly illuminated. 
From the submerging waters of the old world ; the 
fires of Sodom and Gomorrah; the houses of 
Egypt wailing for their first-born ; the battle fields 
of Canaan ; the burning arms of Moloch ; the 
waves of Asiatic rivers ; the groves of the Druids ; 
the murderous grasp of parents steeled against 
their hated offspring; the crowded pits, which 
serve for graves to outcast foundlings ;* from the 
breadth of every continent, the shores of every 
island, where cruel heathenism has reigned, still 
reigns, or may yet reign, as well as from the 
consecrated chambers of Christian bereavement; 
Christ has called his little ones, and, by his own 
strong and gentle arm, caught them to his bosom. 
There has never been a moment, since the earth 
was peopled by its multiplying tribes, that the 

* See the next chapter. 



Si LIFE ABOUNDING OVER DEATH. 

angels have not been busy in the holy delight 
of carrying up to God multitudes of babes and 
sucklings, to perfect his praise and chant ho- 
sannas within the upper temple, victorious through 
atoning, sanctifying grace, over the enemy and 
avenger. 

With what satisfaction will the Elder Brother 
of man look from his high throne, the reward 
of his mediatorial humiliations, upon the pur- 
chase of his sufferings; and see, mingled with 
the sealed hosts of glorified believers, and with 
cherubim and seraphim, the great multitude, 
whom no man can number, of infant souls, whose 
lessons of holy worship shall have been taught 
them in heaven, before they have learned a single 
sin on earth. The martyrs, and those that reach 
the skies through great tribulation, stand nearest 
the throne, because the fires which purified them 
for bliss were hotter than those of less favoured 
Christians; but, surely, they, who stand next 
to them, must be the far more numerous army 
of little ones, whose spirits, stained by no actual 



LITTLE ONES IN HEAVEN. 85 

sin, needed no such furnace of refining flame. 
Heaven lias many joys, joys which no man has 
seen or could express, and all its joys must be 
from beholding the glory of the Lamb as it sheds 
blessing, and beauty, and truth, over all; but it 
were worth centuries of Christian service and 
trial here to reach, at last, the threshold of our 
Father's house, and look upon the happy family 
of his little children, growing in wisdom, and 
strength, and praise, under his delighted eye and 
perfect teaching! 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Gospel the only scheme of pity for little Chil- 
dren. Cruelty of Heathenism. Infanticide. Classic 
Philosophy. Sacramental Regeneration. Salvation 
by works. The Infant saved by Christ alone. 

A most ungrateful wrong would be done to the 
glorious plan of salvation by free grace through 
Jesus Christ, if we did not remark how rich, 
beyond all comparison, are the comforts which 
it affords in the death of litle ones. No other 
scheme offers us any reasonable hope. 

Heathenism, cruel to all, is especially cruel 
toward infants. The apostle (Rom. i. 31), 
characterizes the nations who have departed from 

87 



88 INFANTS SACRIFICED. 

the true God, as "without natural affection;" and 
in nothing is this more clearly seen, than their 
unnatural treatment of their helpless offspring. 
The Old Testament Scriptures often allude to the 
custom of sacrificing young children, prevalent 
among the eastern idolaters. Heathenism, like all 
superstitions, is a spirit of fear ; and the parent 
offered the life of his child, as the most acceptable 
proof he could give of devotion to the demon he 
worshipped. Thus the prophet Micah makes 
Balaam say to Balak : "Shall I give my first-born 
for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the 
sin of my soul V ' (Micah vi. 7). Nor was it con- 
fined to the Syrian abominations, but can be traced 
as accompanying idolatry, more or less, every 
where ; in Africa, Asia, and Europe to the farthest 
north, throughout Polynesia, and among different 
races on the American continent. 

Infanticide was, and is, yet more prevalent. 
Even among the most polished nations of anti- 
quity, the exposure of new-born infants, for various 
reasons, was so common, that an historian of the 



INFANTICIDE, A HEATHEN POLICY. 89 

second century after Christ (JElian*) praises the 
Thebans as singular in having a law against it. 
The rules of several states sternly insisted upon 
the destruction of such babes as did not promise, 
from their physical structure, good service to a 
warlike people. Philosophers in high repute to 
this day, as masters of various science, embodied 
the horrid expedient with their political theories, 
and advocated the murder of unborn infants as a 
check upon population.f The massacre of the new- 
born male Israelites by their Egyptian masters, 
was in perfect accordance with national policy at 
the time, revolting as it appears to us. Some of 
the Pacific Islands were nearly depopulated by 
such inhuman practices, before the arrival of 
Christian teachers among them. Throughout 
India, where superstition makes the slaughter of a 
brute impiety, human offspring are doomed with- 



* Various Histories, ii. 7. 

+ Plato, Republic, v. 6. Aristotle, Politics, vii. 15, 16. Pliny, 
Natural History, xxxix. 2T. 

8* 



90 NO LIGHT FROM PHILOSOPHY. 

out pity ; and the Hindoo woman counts it mercy' 
to save, by immediate assassination, her female 
child from her mother's misery. The Chinese, 
wonderful as their civilization is in many respects, 
scruple not at a wholesale destruction of children 
they deem superfluous ; the crime is never punish- 
ed ; the government connive at it, and the police 
hi some cities assist in it. Mohammed con- 
demned it as existing among the more ancient 
Arabs; but the sun-brightened waters of the 
Bosphorus, and the fruitful Nile, engulf very 
many victims, whom no law defends from parental 
cruelty. 

No classic philosophy could discover blessing 
for infants after death ; nor was it consistent with 
any, even the best, of their theories. If, indeed, 
the spirit of the babe survived, there was no 
alternative to the belief, that its immortality 
would be the same state of undeveloped facul- 
ties in which it left the world. Hence they 
say nothing of the infant's future being beyond 



ETERNAL GLOOM. 91 

this life ;* or suppose it to be a scarcely conscious 
existence among the sombre shadows of an eternal 
twilight.f 

Revelation alone defends the life of the little one 
by making it sacred to God ; under the Old Testa- 
ment in the promise of a Messiah, under the New 



* In the apologue of Alcinus, the most remarkable passage in clas- 
sic writings respecting futurity, Plato says, that what Eros told of 
Infants is not worth relating Plato. Republic, x. 

t The popular sentiment was not more cheering. We have many 
epitaphs and sad elegies on the death of children, showing the deep 
sorrow of bereaved parents ; but none in the classic anthologies 
breathe " a lively hope." One of the most touching (from the Greek 
of Leonidas of Tarentum) is subjoined ; and how exquisitely mournful 
is the desire of the broken-hearted mother, for whom life has no re- 
maining charm, to join her child in " eternal night !" 

Unhappy child ! Unhappy I, whose tears 
Rain on the urn that hides thy blighted years ! 
Thou 'rt early gone, Amyntas — I alone, 
Bereft of thee, through life's long pang must groan : 
Disgusted with each morn's returning light, 
Yearning for refuge in eternal night. 
Sweet spirit, guide thy mother where thou art : 
There only can be still my aching heart. 

{By the Author, from the Antfiology.) 



92 REVELATION ALONE DEFENDS THE BABE. 

in the blessing of Christ; and the same grace, 
which guards its cradle-helplessness from the un- 
natural hands of enemies here, promises the full 
redemption of its innocent spirit from the malice 
of its great enemy hereafter. Bless God, ye affec- 
tionate parents, whether your children are in your 
arms or in a Christ-consecrated grave, that we live 
not in the regions of the shadow of death, but 
under the peaceful, holy, hope-giving sunlight of 
the Gospel ; which came in the person of a nurs- 
ling Babe, on the bosom of a humble, pious 
mother, (whom no popish folly shall keep us from 
calling, after angelic example and according to 
prophetic command,) the " blessed" Virgin ! 

If we in any degree relax our hold on the doc- 
trine of free grace, we lose the strength of this 
precious comfort. The infant has no promise of 
salvation, but through the gracious tenderness of 
Jesus. 

Thus, however edifying the commanded Chris- 
tian rite of baptism is, if we confound it, as many 
have done, with spiritual regeneration, and make 



SACRAMENTAL REGENERATION. 93 

the outward washing the necessary medium of the 
inward, renewing grace, a babe dying before it 
can ask the holy washing by its own faith, is ren- 
dered dependent for its preparation to enter heaven, 
upon the fidelity of others; and, so, the greater 
part of our mortal race are, by no fault of their 
own, shut out of salvation. For this reason the 
Roman Catholics generally, if not universally, deny 
heaven to unbaptized infants* (except those slain 
•as martyrs) ; and assign to them, on the confines 
of purgatory, a separate limbus, or place of their 
own, scarcely more lightened by Divine love than 
that the heathen dreamed of. Hence, also, the 
eagerness of that people to confer baptism upon 
all whom they can by any means reach. But 
theirs is at best, as Bishop Hall says, " The hard 
sentence of a bloody religion ;" and part of that 
system, the policy of which is to claim the pre- 



* "Infants, unless they be regenerated by God through the grace 
of baptism, are begotten by their parents, believers or unbelievers, to 
everlasting misery and perdition." — Council of Trent. 



94 THE INFANT SAFE ONLY BY FREE GRACE. 

rogative of dispensing heavenly gifts, to make 
earthly gain of them. It is difficult, nay, impos- 
sible, for others, who teach the same doctrine of 
sacramental regeneration, to avoid the same dis- 
tressing conclusion;* the supposition of uncove- 
nanted mercy will not avail them, for there is no 
such mercy written of in the Scriptures ; and, if it 
be necessary to enter heaven, that we be person- 
ally and visibly united to an outward church on 
earth, the infant, dying unbaptized, must have I 
some other destiny, than eternal life in the pre- 
sence of God. 

A like difficulty clings about the doctrines of 
Justification by good works, and of Election be- 
cause of foreseen good works. Such saving con- 
ditions cannot be predicated of dying little ones. 
They have neither present nor anticipated merit 
of their own. They must be elected if saved, and 
saved if elected, only by free sovereign grace. 



* It is the doctrine of the Oxford Tracts, that no unbaptized person 
can enter heaven. See Pusey on Baptism, and Bridges' 1 Sacra- 
mental Instruction. 



DEPARTED BABES IN CHRISES ARMS. 95 

Nor (as was said in the beginning of this trea- 
tise) should our hope for them be based upon their 
innocence. The Scriptures warrant no such ex- 
pectation ; but, on the contrary, declare the whole 
race of Adam involved by the consequences of his 
fall, and, as a visible proof of this, death has passed 
upon all alike. It is in Christ alone, Christ the 
second Adam, Christ the Almighty Saviour, Christ 
the only Mediator between God and man, that 
they can be saved ; but in him there is plenteous 
redemption, and He has claimed them for his 
kingdom ; nor shall any be able to pluck them out 
of his hand. 

Blessed be thy name, Lord Jesus Christ, for 
our knowledge of thy full salvation, free as it is 
full, which embraces as securely the souls of babes 
and sucklings, as thine arms did embrace fondly 
their little forms, when unbelieving men would 
have kept them from thee ! Their Hosannas were 
grateful to thine ear, when thy glory was hidden 
from the wise and prudent; how surpassingly 
sweet must they be to thee now, as thou dost look 



96 



DEPARTED BABES IN CHRIST S ARMS. 



from thy cross-bought throne upon the countless 
throng in sinless, immortal beauty, for ever safe 
from sin, and sorrow, and shame, through thine 
abounding love ! 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Affliction from God and comfort only from Him 
through Jesus Christ, to the penitent. Lessons of 
affliction for the unconverted. Exhortation to 
repentance and faith. 

"Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, 
neither doth trouble spring out of the ground" 
(Job v. 6). There is an infinitely wise, omnipotent, 
ever active, ever present Will, ruling over, ordering 
and disposing all. Afflictions, of whatever kind, 
are from God ; they are laid upon us by his hand ; 
so there can be no true comfort under them but 
from God ; for if, " when He giveth quietness, none 
9 



98 COMFORT ONLY IN CHRIST. 

can make trouble," when He maketh trouble, none 
can give quietness. A worldly spirit may be cal- 
lous to trials, which wound sorely better cultivated 
affections ; it may drown grief in silly amusement, 
selfish pleasure, or absorbing occupation ; it may, 
after some lapse of time, forget; but the true 
heart, whose sensibilities are the more acute as 
they are nicer, that shrinks from the unseemliness 
of hollow mirth, and would not purchase an age 
of stupid ease by one hour of forgetfulness, thirsts 
for comfort which reason will aprove, and religion 
alone can afford, a reconcilement of present dark- 
ness with hope, an assurance that, though we see 
it not, God is working all for good. 

Comfort from God can reach us only through 
Jesus Christ. He is the only mediator, the only 
channel of communication between God and man. 
We are all sinners. Death has come upon us all 
by sin; and death, with its painful precedents and 
sad consequents, occasions the greater part of our 
troubles here. There is no healing of our sor- 
rows, but through the cleansing away of our sins. 



NO COMFORT FOR THE UNBELIEVING. VV 

So long as we remain unpardoned, unjustified, un- 
reconciled to God, He lias "a controversy" with 
us. He is our angry Sovereign; and our suffer- 
ings, whether of body or soul, are proofs of His 
displeasure and of our condemnation, foreshadow- 
ings of death eternal, more than portents, the be- 
ginning of eternal wo ; except we use them as* 
warnings to a hearty repentance. But, when, 
through his gracious assistance, we turn from our 
sins unto God, and, by faith in his name, be- 
come united to Christ, God, for Christ's sake, 
accepts us in Him ; we are taken under his paternal 
care, and all our trials are changed into proofs of 
his faithful love, disciplining us for heaven by 
weaning us from earth. God is on our side ; all 
providence is in the hands of Christ; therefore 
nothing can be against us, but all things must 
work together for good to them that love God 
(Rom. viii. 28). 

We have, then, no comfort in the Gospel for 
such afflicted persons as refuse to submit them- 
selves unto God by accepting his grace through 






100 NO COMFORT FOR THE UNBELIEVING. 

Christ. There is not a promise applicable to them 
in all the word of life. We do not say this harsh- 
ly, or without feeling for them in their trouble; 
but in candour and truth. Out of Christ "God is a 
consuming fire;" and the blessed Saviour himself 
has said, that "he which believeth not is con- 
demned already, because he hath not believed in 
the name of the only begotten Son of God ;" and 
"he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, 
but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John iii. 
18, 36). God has demonstrated at once the rich- 
ness of his mercy and the difficulty of its con- 
sistency with his justice, by the provision he has 
made for its exercise in the mediation of Christ ; 
so that, while he freely offers rest and satisfaction 
to those willing to be saved from sin and sor- 
row in the way he has appointed, all who refuse 
his grace are under greater condemnation. Very 
melancholy, then, is their condition, who, notwith- 
standing the warnings of God's afflictive hand, 
refuse to bow themselves in faith at the cross, and 
thus suffer without the blessing of God in this life, 



THE TEACHINGS OF SORROW. 101 

or the hope of comfort in the life to come ! They 
are adding to their sin in breaking the law, and 
their greater sin in denying the Gospel, the yet 
farther obstinacy of hardning their hearts under 
his rebuke and judgments. 

Therefore, we do most earnestly entreat any 
afflicted, yet unbelieving sinner, who may read 
these pages, to seek, without delay, the salva- 
tion and the comfort which is found only in 
Jesus. 

Your sorrow should convince you, that you are 
in the hands of God ; and that, however inde- 
pendent you have desired to be of Him, he can 
take away, in a moment, all you hold dear or pre- 
cious. Heavy as your affliction is, it needed but a 
slight stroke of his rod to lay it upon you ; and 
if you suffer now so keenly, how can you expect 
to endure his unrestrained wrath, his punishing 
fires, forever ? The happiness you have lost came 
from Him; he has taken away what he gave; and, 
if your thirst be so great at the drying up of a rill 
that once flowed down to you from the Fountain 
9* 



102 THE TEACHINGS OF SORROW. 

of Life, of what satisfaction do you deprive your- 
self in refusing the overflowing Spring of all joy ? 
cease your despair over the dry dust of the 
empty channel; and let it be a path to lead you 
upward to Him, whose blessing is as full of joy 
as it is of mercy ! 

Your sorrow may also teach you how very un- 
mindful you have been of God; how very ungrate- 
ful you have been for his care, and how criminally 
idolatrous of his creatures. Before your trouble 
came, you thought little, perhaps not at all, of His 
goodness from whom you received the gift whose 
loss you now deplore ; you held it as your own, 
instead of a treasure lent you for God's glory ; 
and you enjoyed the pleasure, and cherished high 
hopes of future enjoyment, without any reference 
to his will. Now that the idol has been cast down 
broken to the dust, your heart is empty and deso- 
late ; you say in your spirit : " My god is taken 
away, and what have I left P Ah ! dear -friend, 
the emptiness of your desolate heart now, proves 



SORROW SEXT FOR OUR GOOD. 103 

that it never was the temple of God ; but that you 
have lived without him. 

Your sorrow, if you will use it aright, is sent to 
you for good. Affliction is one of the means by 
which God prepares our hard hearts for the recep- 
tion of his truth; as "He maketh the earth soft 
with showers" for the reception and blessing of 
the seed-grain. "When God utterly forsakes im- 
penitent sinners, he abandons them to their pride 
and worldly desires, and lets them have a full swing 
of their godless plans. Their worldly prosperity 
maybe great; they may "not be in trouble, nor 
plagued as other men ; their eyes may stand out 
with fatness, and they have more than heart 
could wish" (Ps. lxxiii. 3-9). Nothing occurs 
to break the tide of their enjoyments, to humble 
their pride, or to remind them of God, judgment, 
and eternity. Thus are they given over to strong 
delusions, believing lies, and, perhaps, "without 
any bands in their death," they go from a life of 
undisturbed indulgence, to the ceaseless pangs of 
death eternal (2 Thcss. ii. 10-12). Not so has 



104 SORROW SENT FOR OUR GOOD. 

God dealt with you. He lias sent trouble into 
your dwelling, and sorrow into your heart. He 
has broken the routine of your worldly engage- 
ments, and the succession of your cherished joys. 
He has mercifully forced you to look upon death, 
and feel your kindred to the grave. Very hard, 
indeed, must your heart be, very blind your rea- 
son and conscience, if you have no thought of 
His power, your responsibility, and the endless 
future. The world, which absorbed all your hopes 
and cares, is now made dark. You see the perish- 
ableness of its best things, and its insufficiency to 
sustain or to cheer when the hour of suffering 
comes. The gourd, which sprang up as it were 
in a night, and made you forget the sheltering 
wings of the Eternal, has withered ; and you cry 
out from anguish of spirit, "It is better for me to 
die than to live" (Jonah iv. 5-10) ! Nay, you have 
turned to look, if no more, at religion, and wonder 
whether you might not obtain some of the comfort, 
which Christian faith seems to afford your pious 
friends. They may have come around you, and 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 105 

spoken more closely than ever before, of your im 
mortal interest; perchance, asking leave to pray at 
your side, and laying some book of Christian ad- 
vice on your table. Even the usages of society 
require for a time, your seclusion from the gaieties 
and interchanges of the world. Your sadness itself 
disposes you to serious reflection. 

All these circumstances show that God has not 
abandoned you; but is calling you through his 
providence, concurring with his word, to turn 
from your past errors and find peace in his blessed 
service. that you would not be disobedient to 
the heavenly voice ! You are not prepared to 
deny the truth or the necessity of religion. You 
are not willing to die without a hope in Christ; 
but have had some vague intention, at some more 
convenient season, to seek the favour of God. 
When can you expect a better opportunity ? God, 
who has promised blessing to the mourner ; Christ, 
who was the Man of sorrows ; and the Holy Ghost, 
who is the Spirit of consolation, are especially near 
us in times of affliction. You have more leisure, 



106 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 

and less interruption, from the tempting allure- 
ments of a worldly life. The interest of pious 
friends is awakened on your behalf, and they will 
assist you by their sympathies, advices, and 
prayers. Your heart, broken with grief, is more 
easy to be broken by contrition. There are scores 
of holy texts addressed to you, which were silent 
in your days of ease and pleasure. There is an 
aching void in your bosom, craving to be filled 
with what the world cannot give. If ever salvation 
was brought nigh to you, it is now. " To-day, if 
you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts !" 

In a little while, the advantage of your present 
sorrow will pass away. The strong urgencies of 
life will draw you from your melancholy retreat. 
You will become, at least, more accustomed to 
your trial. Fresh engagements will thicken 
around you. Fresh cares, if not pleasures, will 
occupy your thoughts and affections. You may 
become (start not at the suggestion, but look 
around and see to how many it has happened, and 
why not to you ?) as worldly as though you had 



DANGER OF DELAY. 107 

never been afflicted. Then, if God still have mercy 
in store for you, it will need another and sharper 
stroke to arouse you again. Your conscience will 
have been made callous by repeated wounds ; and 
each added cicatrice harden your heart against the 
impressions of grace. Put not your merciful 
Father to such severity ! Presume not thus upon 
his long-suffering goodness ! Resist not the striv- 
ings of his compassionate spirit ; but by a humble 
faith and earnest repentance, turn your sorrow into 
joy ; and out of the bitterness of death extract the 
sweet assurance of everlasting peace ! 






EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Afflictions of the believer not strange. No chastise- 
ment WITHOUT ACTUAL SUFFERING. S OK ROW NOT FORBID- 
den, but should be regulated. i. our afflictions 
part of Providence ; as regards ourselves : as re- 
gards others: as regards the Divine glory. 

To the true believer, every trial abounds in com- 
fort; so much, so, that the apostle James begins 
his strong epistle by exhorting his brethren " to 
count it all joy when they fall into divers tempta- 
tions" (or trials, for the words are synonymous) ; 
and again he tells them, " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation" (i. 12); which, indeed, he 
might well say, since our Divine Lord set him the 

10 109 



110 AFFLICTIONS NOT STRANGE. 

example, when he pronounced " those that mourn," 
" blessed," because " they shall be comforted" 
(Matt. v. 4). Instead of thinking afflictions 
strange or mysterious ; when we consider our 
many infirmities, and the great need we are in of 
being chastened from our sin, we should rather 
wonder at our suffering so little ; especially, as we 
are told, that it is " through much tribulation we 
are to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts xiv. 22) ; 
and remember out of what great tribulation the 
martyrs and confessors reached their rank at the 
foot of the throne (Rev. vii. 14). The Scriptures, 
throughout, speak of God's people as a people of 
sorrow, for they are stored full of promises to the 
sad, and the weary, and ihe heavy laden ; nay, the 
prophetic command to the Messiah was, " Comfort 
ye my people" (Is. xl. 1), and the name by which 
his people waited for Him was, " The Consolation 
of Israel" (Luke ii. 25). Theirs must be a con- 
dition of trial, whose God is " the God of all com- 
fort" (2 Cor. i. 3). If we were free from trial, the 
doabt might well arise in our minds, whether we 



CHASTISEMENT PAINFUL. Ill 

were true followers of our great Example, the Man 
of Sorrows ; or children of our heavenly Father, 
" for what son is he whom the father chasten eth 
not V (Heb. xii. 7). None can follow after Jesus, 
except they bear a cross ; and none be partakers 
of the promises, except through faith and patience 
they inherit them. 

Because there is comfort for the believer in 
every trial, it does not follow, that pain is taken 
out of it. If we did not suffer, we should not be 
tried. That is no chastisement, which causes no 
suffering. Comfort itself supposes sorrow ; for it 
is the alleviation, not the extinction of grief. The 
strongest faith, the most assured hope, the hum- 
blest submissiveness, do not render us insensible 
to affliction ; for, then, it would cease to be afflic- 
tion. Callousness, under what God means for 
chastening, would be despitefully resisting it, as an 
obstinate child braces himself to a dogged indiffer- 
ence under his father's rod ; which is what the 
author of the epistle to the Hebrews condemns, 
when he sav<* : " My son, despise not thou the 



112 SORROW 

chastenings of the Lord" (Heb. vii. 5). There 
never could be greater faith, or hope, or submis- 
sion, than Jesus manifested ; yet there never was 
sorrow like his sorrow, and through his actual 
sufferings we are saved. The Christian is, from 
his renewed nature, more sensitive to trial, because 
his affections are stronger, and his sensibilities 
more refined. Our religion, unlike the philoso- 
phical attempts of the Stoics, who would make 
men insensible to grief through insensibility to 
joy, by increasing our joys, increases our sense of 
sorrow. Our perfect joy, when all sorrow shall 
have passed away, is to come. They know not 
the mind of Christ, w r ho pronounce sorrow neces- 
sarily rebellion. There is a sorrow " which work* 
eth death," but it is " the sorrow of the w T orld ;" 
and there is " a godly sorrow, whicji worketh re- 
pentance unto salvation" (2 Cor. vii. 9, 10). Jesus 
once said to a mourner, " Weep not" (Luke vii. 
18); but it was when he meant to give back the 
child she wept for, into her bosom. He himself 
wept at the tomb of his friend, though in another 



NOT FORBIDDEN. 113 

moment he called Lazarus forth to life. Nay, the 
Holy Ghost expressly tells us, that, " Now no 
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous 
but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that 
are exercised thereby" (Heb. xii. 11); the grievous 
exercise at the time being necessary to " the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness" afterward. 

Chide not yourself, then, afflicted believer, be- 
cause you cannot help but mourn ; neither strive 
vainly to dam up the tide of your sorrow. God 
meant that you should mourn, when he sent afflic- 
tion upon you ; and he commands you to pour out 
all your sorrows before him. You will gain no- 
thing by the attempt to stifle your grief; for you 
cannot, except by stifling your heart. Tears are 
the relief which Nature has provided, that brain 
and heart may not burst ; and Jesus has sanctified 
them against that hour, when he shall wipe the 
last tear from the face of his chosen (Rev. xxi 1). 
It were treason to humanity, and rebellion against 
the God who made us, not to weep when a portion 
10* 



114 SORROWS 

of our life and a gift of Lis blessing is taken awiy. 
The Father has smitten you with his rod ; kiss it 
as you weep ; then turn your face into his bosom, 
like a penitent, trustful child, to sob out all your 
sorrows there. 

Yet, here there must be caution. If we are not 
to despise the chastening of the Lord, neither are 
we " to faint, when we are rebuked of him." If 
all were comfort, there were no sorrow ; if all were 
sorrow, no comfort ; the Gospel would fail of its 
end, and the Christian lose his character. Thus 
the wise, tender-hearted Flavel writes at the begin- 
ning of his " Token for Mourners :" " To be above 
the stroke of passion, is a condition equal to an- 
gels ; to be in a state of sorrow without the sense 
of sorrow, is a disposition beneath beasts ; but 
duly to regulate our sorrows and bound our pas- 
sions under the rod, is the wisdom, duty and ex- 
cellence of a Christian. He, that is without 
natural affections, is deservedly ranked among 
the worst of heathens; and he, that is able rightly 
to manage them, deserves to be numbered among 



TO BE REGULATED. 115 

the best of Christians. Though when we are sanc- 
tified, we put on the Divine nature ; yet, till we 
are sanctified, we put not off the infirmities of hu- 
man nature. Whilst we are within the reach of 
troubles, we cannot be without the danger, nor 
ought we to be without the fear of sin ; and it is 
as hard for us to escape sin, being in adversity, as 
becalming in prosperity." 

Our aim under affliction, therefore, should be, 
so to regulate our sorrows by the help of Divine 
grace, that we may have the advantage of such 
Divine comfort as the Gospel freely affords. In 
order to do this, 

1. Let us consider our afflictions as part of 
God's providence. 

As regards ourselves. It is a most joyful truth, 
the belief of which distinguishes us from atheists 
and heathen, that " the Lord reigneth" (Ps. xcvii. 
1) ; because his wisdom and power being infinite, 
there can be neither error nor failure in his dispo- 
sition of things ; and he has by a gracious cove • 
nant made his providence the care of a tender, 



116 god's ways 

faithful Father over all those who love and trust in 
him (Ps. ciii. 11-14). We should see not only 
the hand of God, but the hand of our heavenly 
Father, full of mercy and loving kindness, in all 
that befalls us, whether afflictive or otherwise ; 
and, therefore, should believe it to be best for us 
because it is his will. 

Our own knowledge is so very small, and our 
strength less, that we would not for a moment 
think of taking the general conduct of our affairs 
out of His hands ; shall we then wish to alter any 
particular instance of His doing, because it gives 
us present pain, and we cannot see the precise rea- 
son for it ? It is His doing, therefore it must be 
right; and, if it be painful, He meant that it 
should be. It may very well be mysterious, for 
his thoughts and ways are incomparably above 
ours ; we must be as wise as God, or God as limit- 
ed in comprehension as ourselves, before we e;m 
understand all the reasons of his Providence ; but 
we ought to be sure that He is as faithful in mercy, 
as He is sovereign in ruling: : " Clouds and dark- 



ABOVE OUR WAYS. 11 7 

ness are round about him ;" but " righteousness 
and judgment are the habitation of his throne" 
(Ps. xcvii. 2). There is the ground of our confi- 
dence, and there should be the source of our 
comfort. 

A landsman at sea understands little how a ves- 
sel is worked; he sees her often heading almost 
back from her course ; making many strange and 
contrary traverses ; sometimes stript of her canvas, 
when all to him seems fair ; sometimes strong sails 
set upon her, when the storm is driving fiercely ; 
yet he trusts in the presiding skill, nor would dare 
to give, much less countermand, an order ; for, in 
the extremity of his own ignorance, he has the 
comfort of knowing that the pilot knows. So in 
the hour of gloom, let us trust in God ; for to Him 
the night shineth as the day ; and what to us ap- 
pears adverse, to Him is the guidance of our 
prosperity. 

He would be an unfaithful physician, who 
should spare the caustic, the probe, or the knife, 
because of the patient's shrinking; or suffer the 



118 DIVINE 

disease to triumph, ratlier than cause a few sick- 
ening qualms, which might throw off the evil. 
So should we see in the very painfullness of* our 
afflictions, a proof that their severity was needed 
for our moral well-being, since our merciful Lord, the 
Good Physician, would not unnecessarily afflict us. 

A parent would be cruel, who should suffer his 
child to put its little hand into the flame ; or re- 
fuse it nothing that it craved, however pernicious ; 
or suffer it to keep what it was turning to mischief 
against itself; or allow it the extravagance of pas- 
sion unchecked by' chastisement. It is the pa- 
rent's office to employ superior wisdom and larger 
experience for the good of the child, even against 
its rebellious will. So, since God has assured us 
that He is our most merciful and faithful Father, 
we should readily submit to our restraints, depriva- 
tions, losses and sufferings, as so many proofs that 
a wise, unerring love, is dealing with us in the 
best manner for our profit. 

The passenger thanks his pilot, when the port 
is safely gained ; the patient rewards his physician, 



FIDELITY. 119 

when liis painful cure is effected ; the grown-up 
man looks back with satisfaction upon the parental 
discipline of his youth ; and, though we see not 
the reason of thein now, we shall bless God in 
heaven, and ought to bless him on earth, for all 
the trials we meet along our way there. 

Our personal sorrows are more to us than they 
can be to another, or another's can be to us ; yet 
they are not extraordinary. They must be great, 
indeed, if they bear any comparison with those of 
Job or Daniel, or the stoned prophets, or the Mac- 
cabees, or the apostles, or the early confessors and 
martyrs, or the Huguenots and mountain Chris- 
tians, or the saints of God in Scotland and Eng- 
land and the Low Countries, under their persecu- 
tions ; or, above all, with the sorrows of Him, who 
is our Forerunner, Head and Example. All God's 
best saints have been afflicted like their Master, 
" the stricken of God." It is God's fixed method, 
that obedience must be learned through suffering 
(Heb. ii. 10, v. 8). We professed our willingness 
to endure his chastisements, when we entreated 



120 THE PROOF OF ADOPTION. 

him for Christ the Sufferer's sake, to be our al- 
mighty and most merciful Father. It were then 
most unreasonable and presumptuous to expect 
that God would, in our case, vary his determined 
rule, and miraculously (for that is a miracle which 
is a deviation from the regular course of Provi- 
dence) work our sanctification without afflicting 
us. Nay, to decline chastisement, is to refuse the 
proof of our adoption : " For, if we endure chas- 
tisement, God dealeth with us as with sons ; for 
what son is he, whom the father chasteneth not ? 
But if we be without chastisements, whereof all 
are partakers, then are we bastards and not sons" 
(Heb. xii. 7, 8). The end of our chastisement is 
" our profit, that we may be partakers of his holi- 
ness" (10 v.) 

When, therefore, our sorrows blind us to the 
faithfulness of God, and we love Him less, and not 
more, on account of them ; when we wish our cir- 
cumstances otherwise, and are more anxious for 
t lie removal of our afflictions than our profit from 
them; when they sink our affections to the earth, 



GRIEF, WHEN EXCESSIVE. 121 

Instead of lifting them np where Christ sitteth at 
the right hand of the Father; we may be sure that 
our grief is excessive ; that we are making our 
trials hurtful where God meant them for good; 
and that what we have lost or been disappointed 
in, is still an idol, absorbing our hearts from Him, 
who should be "the strength of our hearts and 
our portion forever." 

When, on the contrary, be our sorrows and 
pains never so great, we feel our hearts drawn 
nearer to God, to Christ, his people, his cause and 
heaven ; the promises sweeter and sin more hate- 
ful; our self-examinations closer, and our desires 
after holiness stronger ; our grief is not excessive, 
and we may believe that there is sown for us in 
our afflictions a harvest of righteous peace ; for, 
then, are we of that blessed number whom the 
apostle Peter addresses, when he says : " Ye 
greatly rejoice (in the hope of the incorruptible, 
undenled, unfading inheritance), though now for a 
season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through 
manifold temptations ; that the trial of your faith, 
11 



122 GRIEF, NOT EXCESSIVE. 

being much more precious than of gold which 
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be 
found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ ; whom, having not 
seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory ; receiving the end of your faith, 
even the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter i. 
6-9). 

Our afflictions are part of God's providence, 
As regards others. It is a narrow and irrational 
selfishness to look upon what concerns us, as 
separated from what concerns others. We are 
necessarily, intimately, and throughout, connected 
with them. Each of us is but a single individual 
of a vast family, over which God is watching by 
his providence. Our joys and our sorrows come 
to us through our kindred with the race. We, 
therefore, judge very imperfectly, when we look 
not beyond ourselves in judging of the reasons 
which God has for afflicting us. 

Our afflictions are necessary to accomplish His 



OUR CONCERNS CONCERN OTHERS. 123 

will in the world; we, if faithful, shall have our 
compensation in sharing the good of the general 
result ; and the hope of this should be our con- 
solation. It often occurs in human affairs, that 
one or a few must temporarily suffer for the ad- 
vantage of the many ; and we applaud those who, 
out of a magnanimous, public-spirited resolution, 
submit cheerfully to become honourably devoted 
for the welfare of friends, their country, the world 
or the Church. Parents toil, deny themselves, and 
beai pain for their offspring ; the soldier perils his 
life for his native land ; the man of science for dis- 
covery ; the philanthropist for mankind ; the con- 
fessor under persecution for the cause of his faith : 
nay, our highest Example devoted himself to sor- 
row, toil, shame and death, for his people. This 
thought should nobly reconcile us to our personal 
sorrows. We may not, as was said before, see 
how God is accomplishing good to others through 
our trials ; but we ought to believe that He will 
Our horizon is very small, our experience very 



124 SELF-DEVOTION. 

brief; out God comprehends all the vast future as 
well as the present. 

Paul's imprisonment at Rome must have been 
painful to him, and mysterious to the Churches 
who needed his active ministry ; the same may be 
said of John's exile to Patmos; yet but for the 
first we should not have had several glowing epis- 
tles, nor but for the second, the sublime hehven- 
opening Revelation, which Scriptures have been 
the strengthening food of Christians from their 
time, and shall be until time shall be no more. 
We are not apostles, and ought not to expect such 
eminent distinction of usefulness ; but in our 
sphere, our trials may be comparatively as useful 
as theirs. 

Do we mourn the death of a pious friend ? It 
is a great sorrow to us ; but it is gain to him. 
Shall we, because of our loss, selfishly grudge it 
to him, that he is now free from life's ills, se- 
cure from earth's temptations, and beyond time's 
changes ; that, from the stormy sea we are sailing 
on, he has reached a quiet haven ; that he is glad, 



OUR LOSS, THE GAIN OF OTHERS. 125 

with the holy angels, in the presence of God; that 
he is immortal, and sinless, and sorrowless, and 
filled with an enrapturing knowledge which here 
he was ever longing after? Or is your bosom 
made desolate of your child ? It is a great sorrow 
to you ; but how kind a Providence has it been to 
the little one, who only touched its lip to the bitter 
cup which you are now drinking, and changed the 
care of an imperfect, frail, sinful, short-sighted, 
though fond .parent, for the eternal arms of its 
heavenly Father ? These are strong instances ; 
but in every occasion of sorrow to us, there is 
occasion of good, though we may not see it, to 
some other or many others, which we could not, 
without the most unkind covetousness, wish were 
denied them, that we might have our own personal 
ease and quiet. 

God designs and calls every Christian to exert 
some degree of useful influence among his fellow 
men. Our trials may be necessary to purify our 
spirits, restrain our earthward propensities, make 
our zeal more single for the truth, and so fit us 
11* 



126 THE SCHOOL 

for the sphere, the work and purpose to which we 
are designed. The forty years of secluded pasto- 
ral life in the desert, to which Moses was exiled, 
must have been a long, severe trial, for one trained 
in the court, and among the learned men of Egypt ; 
but it was for that very reason necessary to edu- 
cate his spirit in patience, labour, and meekness, 
that he might wisely and steadily govern Israel 
while wandering in the desert. The same was 
true of David: "Before I was afflicted," says the 
royal penitent, " I went astray ; but now have I 
kept thy word" (Ps. cxix. 67). The apostles 
were all schooled, by suffering, for their great work 
of establishing the Church, and it is most delight- 
ful, in their epistles, to mark the change of the 
rash, presumptuous, hot-headed Peter, into the 
sympathizing comforter of the weaker brethren; 
and of the intolerant John, who, with his brother, 
would have called down fire upon the Samaritan's 
head, into the loving preacher of the gentlest chari- 
ty. Nay, Jesus himself was the Man of Sorrows, 
that he might, even on the throne of his glory, 



OF SUFFERING. 127 

have a sense of our infirmities, and know how to 
succour those that are tempted. The lowest 
soldier in the ranks is disciplined long and 
hardly, before he is thought fit for the burdens, 
the privations, and the obedience of a campaign. 
It is a great work which we have to do ; many 
immortal interests are connected with our instru- 
mentality; nor should we be impatient of any 
training, however sorrowful for the time, which 
may make us more useful in the cause of salvation. 
At the least, we can, by Divine grace, set such 
an example of patience and quietness under the 
Divine hand, as may be very edifying and con- 
vincing of the Gospel's efficacy, to those who see 
our demeanour. Job was stript of all the human 
heart holds dear, wealth, station, friends, children, 
health, and even his good name ; but his example 
put to shame the boast of the tempter, gratified 
the holy angels with a sublime spectacle of 
triumphant faith, and lives on the sacred page 
for the encouragement and learning of God's 
afflicted saints in all ages. 



128 THE TEST OF SORROW. 

When, therefore, our troubles render us insensi- 
ble to the well-being of others, turning all our 
cares and thoughts inward with a moody, isolated 
grief; we may be sure that our sorrow is excessive. 
But when, in the midst of our own pains, we can 
yet weep with others that weep, and rejoice with 
those that rejoice, so that our aim is to render our 
afflictions occasions of their benefit, and it is a 
comfort to find them profited by our losses ; such a 
use of sorrow lifts us up to a sympathy with the 
suffering Saviour and his devoted martyrs. 
Our afflictions are part of God's providence, 
As regards His own glory. It is the true 
Christian's great and only comfort in life and 
death, to believe that he is not his own, that he is 
"bought with a price," and "belongs unto his 
faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ." To be the instru- 
ment of his heavenly Father's glory, the servant 
of his Redeemer's honour, and this not only in 
time but throughout eternity, is his high honour 
and chief ambition. Hence it is our first Christian 
duty to resolve all our will into the will of God, 



god's glory, our good. 129 

and to choose that, and only that, which He 
chooses for us ; because the end being His glory, 
He knows best, and has the right of determining, 
how to bring it about. To insist upon having our 
way, is breaking the covenant by which we bound 
ourselves to his service ; to question the wisdom 
of any arrangement of His, is drawing back from 
our willing consecration to His praise. Shall a 
faithful servant dispute with his master, or a loyal 
subject with his prince, because ordered to a diffi- 
cult task or a perilous post ? Then it is that he 
has the best opportunity of proving his fidelity 
and allegiance. 

All the events of human history, in the lives of 
persons and the affairs of nations, are working to- 
gether for the glory of God. From the beginning 
He has been weaving them into the garment of 
praise, with which he will enrobe himself at the 
close, for the admiration of eternity. Our sor- 
rows and joys, however insignificant we may 
seem, are mingled in the mighty web. God 
alone can discover all their connection, the in- 



130 god's glory, our good. 

terlinking of circumstances so slight compared 
with the vast whole ; but He does know, for 
He has arranged them ; and that should be 
enough to satisfy us. 

We have already seen how He deems chastise- 
ment systematically necessary to our sanctification 
from sin, which it is the purpose of His grace to 
accomplish ; and how He uses our experience of 
trial for the moral good or rebuke of others, which 
is His glory. There is no spectacle on earth in 
which He displays so much of his gracious power, 
as that of a believer pressed by troubles, persecu- 
tions, or sufferings, yet steadfast and patient, and 
humbly trustful under all. None have been more 
frequent in the history of His Church, and none 
have gained more triumphs from the world. 
When trial comes upon us, it is a call to share 
with those who came out of great tribulation, and 
with the Man of Sorrows Himself, in giving the 
testimony of a virtue, which, " though He slay 
us," will yet " trust in him ;" wherefore, " Blessed 
is the man who endureth temptation," for he is 



SUFFERING FOR CHRIST. 131 

invited to the higher ranks of tlie glorified armies, 
and bright, above heaven's ordinary garniture, is 
the crown of life awaiting him. It is a privilege 
to speak for Christ, to work for Christ, to live for 
Christ ; but it is a yet higher order of service to 
suffer for Christ. It is a badge of our sonship, 
which we receive by our union to the suffering 
Son of God; for, says the apostle, "If children, 
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we 
may be also glorified together. For I reckon that 
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us" (Rom. viii. 17, 18). Again, he 
writes to Timothy : " It is a faithful saying : For 
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with 
him ; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him ; 
if we deny him, he will also deny us ; if we be- 
lieve not, he abideth faithful ; he cannot deny him- 
self" (2 Tim. ii. 11-13). The afflictions, laid up- 
on us, are part of that suffering in which we are 
to glorify God, as well as persecutions or martyr- 



132 RESULTS IN ETERNITY. 

doms from Christ's enemies. If we faint under 
personal or domestic sorrows, we could never 
have endured the rack, or the flame, or the 
cross. 

The grand results of Providence are in eternity. 
There the Almighty Reaper will gather the full 
harvest of his glory which is sown in time. Our 
life in heaven will be immortal ; and our work in 
heaven perpetual praise to God and the Lamb. 
How God will employ actively the glorified facul- 
ties of his people, we are but imperfectly told ; but 
"his servants shall serve him" (Rev. xxii. 3), and 
their offices will be of a most elevated character. 
To fit us for that heavenly life and exalted service 
is the end of our discipline, by affliction, here ; as 
the apostle Peter says : " That the trial of your 
faith, being much more precious than of gold 
which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, 
might be found unto praise, and honour, and 
glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The 
apostle Paul has the same thought, when he 
" reckons that the sorrows of this present time 



THE REFINING PROCESS. 133 

are not worthy to be compared to the glory which 
shall be revealed in us ;" not merely " the far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory," which 
shall be wrought out for us, but the glory of God 
which shall be revealed in our heavenly perfection. 
Thus should we look upon our trials as the refin- 
ing fire, purging away, by Divine grace, the dross 
from our characters ; the discipline necessary to 
set us free from the stains and infirmities which 
sin has brought upon our faculties ; the process by 
which God is preparing us for the higher exercises 
of our immortality. It is but for a short time, a 
moment compared with eternity, that we shall suf- 
fer; and our afflictions, severe as they may be 
now, are light, compared to the glorious rewards. 
If we be faithful under trial, every pang, every 
tear, we may be sure, is making us more vigorous 
for our heavenly employment ; and in proportion 
as we suffer now, we shall rise to the fuller enjoy- 
ment of those raptures and dignities, which are 
eternally found in glorifying God. Should not 
this hope of shining in the Redeemer's glory; 
12 



134 TEST OF SORROW. 

manifesting the praises of Him who hath called 
us into marvellous light, and serving God, our 
heavenly Father, with a higher energy, reconcile 
us to all the trials of our preparatory purifica- 
tion ? 

When, therefore, our sorrows deaden our zeal 
for the Divine glory, and we are not comforted by 
the expectation that through our trials, patiently 
borne, God will accomplish the praise of his grace ; 
our grief is excessive. But when, in the extremi- 
ties of distress, we yield ourselves to the Divine 
disposal, anxious that God may display his wis- 
dom and power through our example here, and 
our higher service hereafter; we have fellowship 
with " Jesus, who for the joy set before him en- 
dured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. xii. 
1) ; for the joy, which made him obedient in sor- 
row until death, was the glory of God in the eter- 
nal redemption of His Church. 

Thus, though we have considered the Provi- 
dence of God, as regards ourselves, as regards 
others, and as regards his own glory, we see that 



god's will 135 

our own highest good is closely connected with 
usefulness to our fellow men, and inseparably with 
the Divine glory. When we make God's will our 
will, he makes our interest his interest. All things 
are ours if we be Christ's. This is a branch from 
the tree of life, enough to sweeten all the bitter 
waters of our sorrow. " who can value," ex- 
claims Flavel, " the comfort that is tasted by the 
soul upon the trial and discovery of its sincerity, 
when, after some sore temptation, wherein God 
has helped us to maintain our integrity ; or after 
some close pinching affliction, wherein we have 
discovered in ourselves a sweet resignation to, 
and contentment with the will of God, an heart 
cleaving to the Lord, purged and made more spir- 
itual under the rod ; we can turn to the Lord, and 
appeal to him as the prophet did : ' But thou, 
Lord, knowest me ; thou hast seen me and tried 
mine heart towards thee' (Jer. xii. 3). I say, who 
can value such an advantage ? Who would ex- 
change such a comfort for all the gold and silver 
in the world ? How many trials soever God brings 



136 OUR INTEREST. 

his people under, to be sure neither his own glory, 
nor their interests, shall receive any damage by 
them !" 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Farther considerations to regulate grief. II. Our 

REMAINING MERCIES. "We DESERVE NOTHING, YET HAVE 

Christ, the unspeakable gift of god. III. Our duties. 
Borrow should not make us unfaithful. Zeal of Christ 
in his affliction. Consolation in doing good. IV. The 
sympathy of Christ for his people. The God-man. 
The Man of Sorrows. His strength perfect in our 
weakness. V. The rest awaiting us. No satisfac- 
tion promised here. Salvation by hope. The far 
more exceeding and eternal glory. 

II. We should consider the mercies of God, 
which remain to us. 

We may have lost what to us was a highly 
prized treasure and unspeakable delight: all our 

12* 1ST 



138 GOD HAS NOT TAKEN ALL FROM Us. 

attention is drawn to our bereavement ; our hearts 
deprived of their cherished joy, present to us, like 
our homes, only a melancholy vacuum; we are 
absorbed by what is gone ; and so are tempted to 
say, All is lost. 

But is this true ? Has God taken all from us ? 
All our friends are not departed, though the dear- 
est one may be. Even now, kind sympathizing 
hearts are beating for us; and gentle hands are 
ready to render us a not unwelcome ministry, and 
low-breathed voices are uttering words of promise 
or of prayer. It is true, our tears flow faster at 
such attempts to console us; and we feel, not with- 
out bitterness, how vain is the best intention of 
human friendship to make up for the absence of 
what we mourn after. Yet, let us suppose the 
reverse, that the last earthly friend had been taken, 
and we were utterly alone in the world ; poor, 
despised, overlooked by the crowd of busy mortals; 
without one tongue to say, Look up, and be hope- 
ful ! one hand to clasp ours in mute eloquence of 
consenting sorrow, one heart to pray by our side ; 



WHAT GOD TOOK, HE LENT. 139 

that we were driven to caves or dens of the earth, 
or onr pangs mocked by cruel persecutors ! Yet, 
such have been the trials, through which many of 
God's best people have passed, their nearest rela- 
tives and bosom friends tortured to death before 
their eyes, their children impaled and borne aloft 
on the soldier's spear, or dashed against the flints. 
Is it nothing that you are spared from such 
aggravated anguish, and are permitted the privi- 
lege of an unmolested grief and Christian min- 
istrations ? 

You are now so taken up with your grief, as 
to think little of what remains to you ; but, would 
you be willing to part with surviving friends or 
spared supports! Consider that all came from 
God, what is left and what is taken ; that all 
belong to God, lent you only to use and enjoy 
for his glory ; and now, because he has recalled a 
portion of his own into his own hands, will you 
despise what he still allows you to have ? All the 
virtue which his creatures have to bless us, is 
derived from Him ; and because one stream is 



140 HAVE CHRIST, HAVE ALL. 

dried up, can He send no waters of life by those 
which are flowing on? Even if he has taken 
all, and there remains to you not one, of all the 
kindred you have loved, to love you, not one 
of all your former stays to support you, have you 
not Himself, through Jesus Christ, your heavenly 
Father, Friend, Portion and Strength, forever ? Is 
it not your duty, have you not professed it to be 
your privilege, your desire and aim, to love Him 
with all your heart and mind and strength ; to 
love him better than friend, father, mother, sister, 
wife, husband, child, brother? And now, if, since 
lie has taken, in his wise and sovereign and 
merciful will, any of all these from you, you 
shut yourself up to despair, is it not a proof 
that you had given them an idolatrous place in 
your affections, and were loving and serving his 
creatures "more than the Creator, who is God 
over all blessed forever?" Do you not repeat 
the lament of the unhappy heathen, who cried 
after his idols : " Ye have taken away my gods, and 
what have I more ?" (Gen. xxxi. 30 ; Judges xviii. 



GOD IN CHRIST, BEST OF ALL. 141 

24). Ask of yourself, whether you would be wil- 
ling to give up the love and care of your covenant 
God and affectionate Redeemer, to get back all for 
which you are mourning ? Or, whether it becomes 
one who has the eternal God for his portion, the 
privileges of his communion on earth, and the ex- 
pectation of partaking his glory in heaven, to 
bemoan and despair, as though in the grave were 
buried all his riches and hope? Truly, if our 
bereavements show that we have been so taken up 
with God's gifts, which he intended to increase our 
love for him, as to value him and his comforts less 
than them ; it was high time for him to remove 
the causes of our infidelity, and compel us back to 
our only proper trust. 

What are we, that we thus quarrel with and 
chide God, because "it pleases the Father to bruise 
us and to put us to grief;" because for his own 
glory, he has called back a life that he gave ; be- 
cause he has crossed our wishes in carrying on his 
own purposes? Are we like the holy angels, who 
deserve nothing but joy? Have we been ever 



1-42 MERCY IN SORROW. 

faithful to Him, and in the use of his gifts always 
glorified his name? Ah! my afflicted friend, we 
are nothing but sinners; and so far from wondering 
that we are called to sutler, we should rather won- 
der that we are not in endless, unrelieved, remedi- 
less wo ! Have we not confessed that we deserve 
His wrath? Do w T e not know that we are saved 
from it only by the unspeakable sorrows and 
agonies of His incarnate Son? When he has put 
forth his strong hand and lifted us up from the 
depths of our guilt, corruption and despair, to give 
us the earnest of an eternal and blissful heaven; 
should we not bless Him, and rejoice in Him, 
whatever sorrows He leaves in our cup ? When 
our salvation cost such sorrows of the Son of God, 
should we refuse whatever passing sorrows are 
needed for our sanctification ? 

It is a clear sign of our grief being excessive, 
when it so clouds our sight, that we cannot see the 
goodness and the grace of God in his remaining 
favours, or find consolation in Himself; but when 
our thanks mingle with our suffe rings, and we cling 



DUTIES REQUIRED OF US. 143 

to liis compassion with a penitent, hopeful spirit, 
weeping in the very arms of his love, our sorrow is 
safe, sweet, sanctified and salutary. 

III. We should consider our duties. 

We are not our own, but belong to God, by the 
threefold indenture of creation, redemption, and 
dedication. All our powers and all our time are 
by right his. It is robbery to withhold or alienate 
them, in any degree, from his service (Mai. iii. 8). 
It cannot be, that we have nothing to do, when 
there is so much to be done, so few to do it, and 
so little time to do it in; when there are so many 
souls to be converted, so many destitute to be 
relieved, so many poor children to be taught, so 
many sorrowing ones to be comforted, so many 
weak ones to be built up ; when the Church of 
Christ is yet so small, the number of faithful, en- 
ergetic labourers still smaller, making the absence or 
inactivity of any one to be severely felt ; and when 
our lives, in which we have the opportunity of 
working for God on earth, are fast passing away, 



144 JESUS, THE SUFFERER, ZEALOUS, 

and, in a moment, when we think not, may be 
brought to a close. 

Our blessed Lord was continually bowed down 
with the weight of sorrows, yet he never intermit- 
ted his labours, or relaxed his zeal for us on that 
account, but wrought the more while it was day, 
because the night was coming when no man can 
work. In the same spirit, he tolerated no remiss- 
ness on the part of those, who professed to serve 
him ; for when one said : " Lord, suffer me first to 
go and bury my father," the Master's answer was : 
"Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead" 
(Matt. viii. 21, 22); not that he forbids a proper 
respect for the dust of the beloved dead, but that 
no feeling of the kind should hinder us from fol- 
lowing him. Thus, the apostles and early Chris- 
tians, in the midst of the most bitter persecutions 
and sad bereavements, laboured on so zealously, 
that the Church has never since equalled their zeal 
or successes. 

Shall we, then, because God has laid his rod 
upon us, think ourselves absolved from duties, for 



DUTY, A COMFORT. 145 

the neglect of which we deserve chastisement? 
Because some earthly comfort is gone, shall we 
turn away from the path of life, or the labours 
which earn eternal reward through grace? Shall 
we refuse to serve the best interests of the living, 
in our feeding of sorrow for the dead ? Or, shall 
our incomparably less suffering make us deserters 
from His cause, who by his sufferings and through 
his sufferings, wrought out eternal redemption for 
us? 

Besides, as the path of duty is the only path of 
safety, so it is only in the practice of duty that we 
can expect comfort. We reason with our friends 
in affliction, entreating them forth from their 
shadowed chambers ; where grief, constantly in- 
dulged, becomes morbid, and the physical powers 
give way, until disease of body aggravates disease 
of mind ; to take exercise in the open air, to in- 
hale the odorous, breezy breath of nature, to feel 
the sun, and to look upon the faces of their kind. 
We account it a happy thing, when business or 
other urgencies of life, compel a mourner to shake 
13 



146 DOING GOOD, A SOLACE. 

off the ashes from his sackcloth, and divide his 
thoughts with grief. But there is no engagement 
or exercise so healthful to an afflicted spirit, as 
doing good. As we mingle with those of the 
outer world, for the purpose of helping them in 
their distresses and dangers, we see that there are 
other mourners, and some, perchance, far more to 
be pitied than ourselves ; we learn to compare the 
wants and perils of souls without hope, against our 
religious comforts, small as our moody blindness 
has thought them to be ; and we find an occupa- 
tion for our hearts, and minds, and hands, and 
means, and time, which, according to the retribu- 
tive rules of Providence, brings a reward of peace- 
ful satisfaction. This was, in fact, our blessed 
Master's way of comforting himself; for, if, in his 
sad journey ings, bowing under our sins, vexed by 
" the contradictions of sinners against himself," he 
found a leper, or a blind man, or a paralytic, or 
one dumb from his birth, or a mourner over the 
recent dead, or a sinner who would listen to his 
word, he but stayed his steps to work a cure, or 






our master's joy on earth. 147 

raise the dead, or convert the lost, and his spirit 
grew strong, as from heavenly meat and wine 
(Matt. iv. 32, 34). 

So, Christian, when thy heart grows faint, 
Amid the toils that throng the saint, 
Seek thou some blessing to impart 
Unto some other human heart, 
And thou thy Master's joy shalt share, 
E'en while his cross thy shoulders bear. 

The joy of the Saviour was in doing good ; and, 
therefore, when, anticipating the sorrows which 
were to come upon his disciples, he would comfort 
them beforehand, he gave them his command- 
ments, especially the commandment of love, and 
said : " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall 
abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's 
commandments, and abide in his love. These 
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might 
remain in you, and that your joy might be full" 
(John xv. 10, 11). 



148 TEST OF OUR GRIEF. 

If, therefore, our sorrows so discompose our 
minds, as to dissuade and hinder us from attempt- 
ing our manifest Christian duties, and we shut 
ourselves up selfishly from the world, in which we 
are commanded to set an example like light, and 
to diffuse a saving influence like salt, it is very 
clear that our grief is excessive, and our zeal, so 
easily shaken, very insufficient ; but, if, though we 
carry within us a sad heart, we yet seek to carry 
the grace of our Saviour, where the Man of Sor- 
rows carried it when he was on earth, and hath 
left us to carry it in his name, we have the pro- 
mise, nay, the present blessing of our Lord's 
strength and sympathy. 

IV. We should consider the sympathy of Christ 
with his people. 

It was necessary for our Lord to become incar- 
nate, that as our Elder Brother, our Kinsman-Re- 
deemer, he might on earth fulfil the law which we 
had broken, and die the death which we deserved 
to die, thus accomplishing our deliverance from 
wrath, and setting an example for us to follow his 



THE TEMPTED. 149 

6teps. The weight of sorrow was, therefore, part 
of the burden which he undertook to bear as our 
Mediator. From the fact of his incarnation as the 
Man of Sorrows, however, we derive the most pre- 
cious assurance of his nearness to us, and sympa- 
thy with us. His example being set us in sorrows, 
shows that sorrow is the frequent, nay, the ordi- 
nary experience of his followers; but, blessed be 
his name ! it shows us, also, that he has a " feeling 
of our infirmities, having been in all points tempt- 
ed like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. iv. 15); 
and " in that he himself hath suffered, being 
tempted, he is able to succour them that are 
tempted" (Heb. ii. 18). How very close must 
God be to his people, when he dwelt in the heart 
that was aching and agitated by human fears, and 
pains, and griefs ! How very near may his people 
draw to Him, when he still dwells in the once 
afflicted and crucified, but now glorious humanity 
of our Elder Brother, at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high ! He is the Head, and we are of 
his body the members ; and, instant as the nerves 
13* 



150 THE SUCCOURKR. 

conduct every sensation of the body to the presid- 
ing head, does He feel all that his people feel of 
joy or sorrow. He is our Divine Head, and as 
He is human to feel with us, is he God Almighty, 
to help, sustain, and comfort us ; so that, having 
such " a great High Priest, who has passed into 
the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God," we may come 
with " boldness unto the throne of grace, that we 
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time 
of need" (Heb. iv. 14, 16). 

This very consideration should teach us ; that 
our sorrows bring us nearer to Jesus than our 
worldly prosperity ever could permit. He had 
little experience of joy on earth. His joy lay in 
the future, and the expectation of final success. He 
had no fellowship with the rich, the noble, the 
luxurious, or the honoured. If we would find the 
places which he hallowed by his presence, we 
must go to the poor man's house, the beggar's 
haunt by the way-side, the bed of the sick, and 
the chamber of mourning. Wherever piety dwells 
in sorrow, wherever a penitent soul is bowing in 



THE MAN OF SORROWS. 151 

sackcloth, there he was, and there, by his Spirit, 
he still is. He did not take away our death by 
his own, but he took the sting out of it ; so h'e 
has not removed our salutary sorrows, but purged 
them of all their bitterness. He took upon him 
our infirmities, that he might wrap our weakness 
about his strength. He, who bore with success 
most glorious all our penal sufferings, can enable 
us to bear all the sufferings needed for our sancti- 
fication. He does not remove the trial from us, 
though we are so unwise as to wish that he would ; 
but he says, " My grace is sufficient for thee." It 
is His glory to make " his strength perfect in our 
weakness." When we are weak in ourselves, " we 
have omnipotence in him" (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9). So 
far from murmuring, therefore, because of our 
trials, if we had the spirit of Paul we should 
rather glory in our infirmities, that Christ's own 
power might rest upon us. 

When we look in upon our hearts, and contem- 
plate only our sorrows, it is no wonder that we 
bow under the burden ; but, when we look out of 



152 LORD OF JOY. 

ourselves to Christ, and remember his sorrows for 
us on earth, and his almighty sympathy for us in 
glory, the thought of sharing his cup, of being 
baptized so deeply with his baptism, should fill us 
with a lively joy. O, what is any loss we can sus- 
tain, compared to the gain of finding Christ, of 
being closely united to him, and of the assurance 
that, as we have suffered with him, we shall enter 
into his joy ! Christ is infinitely more precious 
than all he can take away, for he will not, cannot 
so deny himself, as to deny us his Presence now, 
and his Glory hereafter. 

This should moderate our sorrows, nay, even 
turn them into joy ; and excessive, indeed, must 
be the grief, which shuts from our hearts the free, 
unbounded, unspeakable consolations of a once 
suffering Saviour's sympathy, and a now glorified 
Saviour's power. 

V. We should consider the Rest which awaits 
us. 

The purpose of our religion is to prepare for 
eternity. It has many advantages for this life, 



OUR COMFORTS ARE FROM HOPE. 153 

but they are only as the manna and the stream, to 
refresh us until we reach our promised inheritance 
beyond Jordan. Our best, truest comforts, are 
grasped by hope reaching its hand far within the 
vail. With our regenerated desires, and new 
spiritual aims, it may be emphatically said, that 
u if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 
are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. xv. 19). 
" All the articles of our faith lead us where Christ 
sitteth at the right hand of God."* All our pre- 
sent blessings come from above, and we look up 
to pray, expecting them down. The manna is 
bread from heaven, not the growth of earth ; and 
the stream of living w r aters flows from the rock 
Christ in glory. Of such account is this hope, in 
our spiritual life, that it is reckoned one of the 
three most necessary graces : "Now abideth these 
three, faith, hope, charity" (1 Cor. xiii. 13). If 
we are saved by faith, we are saved also by hope 

(Rom. viii. 24). If "love be the fulfilling of the 

* 

* Communion Service of the Reformed Dutch Church. 



154 OUR REST IS NOT HERE. 

law" (Rom. xiii. 10), "hope is as an anchor to the 
soul, sure and steadfast" (Heb. vi. 19); strength- 
ening and confirming us under the troubles, and 
against the temptations of earth. Hope, accord- 
ing to the apostle, is next to love in the climax of 
Christian attainment here : " Therefore, being jus- 
tified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have 
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, 
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God ;" and 
to the cultivation of this sanctifying hope, our 
trials from without, joined to love of the truth 
within, greatly contribute ; for the apostle goes 
on : " And not only so, but w T e glory in tribula- 
tions also, knowing that tribulation worketh pa- 
tience ; and patience, experience ; and experience 
hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed ; because 
the love of .God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us" (Rom. 
v. 1-5). The Rest of the people of God " remain- 
eth" for them (Heb. iv. 9) ; it is not here ; on the 
contrary, the command to them says : " Arise ye 



THE JOY BEFORE US. 155 

and depart ; for this is not your rest, because it is 
polluted" (Micah ii. 10) ; and all God's providence 
concerning them is arranged, if it be used aright 
to wean their affections from earth, and fix them 
upon heaven. 

Our afflictions, therefore, should be considered 
in reference to their eternal consequences. The 
Scripture does not deny that they are grievous 
now (" no affliction for the present seemeth to be 
joyous, but grievous") ; our blessed Lord, during 
all his life here, was afflicted ; and, " as he endured 
his cross and shame, so are we to endure our trials, 
for the joy set before us, looking unto him for 
strength and patience; which we cannot do, ex- 
cept we look beyond time and above earth, to 
his throne at the right hand of God." (Heb. xii. 
1, 2). Severe as they may be, we should be re- 
conciled to all our sufferings, as Jesus was to his, 
by the assurance that in them is sown the soed of 
an eternal harvest, the peaceable fruits of right- 
eousness for ourselves, and of greater glory to God, 
whose wise grace thus accomplishes our greater 



156 LOOKIHG AT THE ETERNAL. 

salvation. Our trials may be severe ; the refining 
furnace is always hot ; but Jesus, ever merciful as 
well as faithful, is watching the fire, and " he will 
not suffer us to be tried above that we are able by 
his help to bear" (1 Cor. x. 13); and there is a 
" need be," not only for every trial, but for the 
degree of it. We shall, if "patience have her 
perfect work " (James i. 4), find an immortal bless- 
ing for every pang we feel, and an immortal joy 
for every tear we shed. Those who shall have 
come out of the greatest tribulation, will have the 
highest strain of thanksgiving. This made some 
of the early Christians covetous of persecution, 
ambitious of martyrdom, eager after tortures ; and, 
although in that respect we should not imitate 
them, for we have no right rashly to venture where 
God has not called us, yet we ought to be more 
than reconciled to afflictions from God's hand, by 
the method which made Paul to rejoice in his trials, 
u of looking not at the things which are seen, 
but at the things which are not seen ; because the 
things which are seen are temporal, but the things 



THE SORROWLESS HOME. 157 

which are not seen are eternal ;" for, then, our 
heaviest sorrows will he light, and our longest sor- 
rows but for a moment, since they are working 
out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). 

The Rest which God provides for us is perfect 
and eternal. " The former things," the temporal 
circumstances which rendered the preparatory dis- 
cipline necessary, " shall be done away." " The 
Lord God shall wipe away every tear," the last 
tear, " from our eyes." " There shall be no more 
death;" no more sickness, no more languor, no 
more sad decay, no pang of the dying, no chang- 
ing to corruption of the beloved face ; no more 
watching by the painful bed ; no more hiding the 
once cherished form out of sight in the cold, dark, 
damp ground ; no sad funeral, no grave, no mourn- 
ing weeds in heaven ; " Neither sorrow ;" the sor- 
rows of repentance shall cease, for there will be no 
more sin; the sorrows of bereavment, for there 
will be no more loss ; the sorrows of personal 
anguish, for there will be no more suffering ; the 
14 



158 FAR BETTER TO DEPART. 

sorrows of sympathy, for all will be happy as our- 
selves : " Nor crying ;" the groans which echo 
through our dwellings long after the stricken breast 
is still, the shriekings under intolerable pangs, the 
low moanings of the mourner abandoned to grief 
that refuses to be comforted, the wail of the wid- 
owed heart, the sobbings of the orphan scarce con- 
scious of its deprivation, are never heard among 
the many mansions of our Father's house : " Nei- 
ther shall there be any more pain," for our bodies 
will be immortal in youthful vigour, and our spirits 
ravished with an unceasing, ever-increasing bliss 
(Rev. xxi. 4). 

The pious friends, the blessed little children, 
whom we mourn, have already entered that death- 
less, sorrowless, sinless, exulting Rest; shall we, 
by selfish grief, regret their escape from the anguish 
we feel ? There has the Master, after suffering 
and dying to purchase the right, gone to prepare 
places for us, and in a little while he will come to 
receive us up to himself: shall we refuse to bear 
for his sake, who has provided for us so rich an in- 



FAR BETTER TO DEPART. 159 

heritance, whatever trials he considers needed for 
our good and his glory ? Surely, that grief must 
be excessive, which clings despairingly to earth, 
instead of longing with a consoling hope after the 
Rest above. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED, 



THE CONSOLATION. 

CHAPTER X. 

Special consolation for Christians bereaved of Chil- 
dren. Adapted to parental hopes. I. The covenant 
with God. The promise of God fulfilled by the death 
of the Child. 

Full of comfort as Christians, in any sorrow, 
may find the Scriptures, those bereaved of their 
little ones have especial reasons to bless the name 
of Him, " who gave and hath taken away ;" for, 
besides sharing " many exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises," which are the common gracious 
property of afflicted saints, the form and circum- 
stances of their trial suggest the richest and sweet- 
est compensations. 

14* 161 



162 STRENGTH OF PARENTAL LOVE. 

The exquisite anguish of their bereavement 
arises from the exquisite tenderness and strength 
of parental love. Each class of our duties requires 
a corresponding, qualifying affection : love is the 
fulfilling of every law (Romans xiii. 10) : and none 
less tender or strong than that which parents have 
toward their offspring, could sufficiently animate, 
encourage, or sustain them, in the discharge of 
those patient, anxious offices, necessary for the 
uprearing and education of children out of the 
helplessness of infancy, through the thoughtless 
waywardness of youth, to self-governing maturity. 

Affection descends. Faithful children love and 
reverence their parents as the authors of their 
being, and the kind guardians of their early years ; 
but it is an affection of gratitude. for benefits receiv- 
ed. Faithful parents cherish their children from a 
high, God-implanted instinct, as their own life ; re- 
gard them as parts of their own being ; labour, care, 
sacrifice for them more than for themselves ; and 
love them the better for the very labours, cares, sa- 
crifices, which they cost. They deeply enjoy this 



THE COMFORT NEEDED. 103 

affection, and are most happy in the exercise, the 
hopes, and successes of their guardianship ; but 
their enjoyment is from the benefits which they 
confer, and their happiness from their children's 
happiness. They anticipate and endeavour to 
secure their children's virtue, accomplishments, 
prosperity, honour, usefulness, eternal welfare. 
Their aims stretch far beyond their own death, to 
bless their children's children. 

No comfort, therefore, can uphold a parent un- 
der the loss of a child, which is not addressed to 
this affection, nor can it be consoled except by the 
revival and assurance of its hopes. Here the Gos- 
pel proves the excellency of its merciful power; 
for, assuming the little one's immortal happiness to 
have been demonstrated, a Christian parent should 
have unspeakably greater satisfaction in its removal 
from this world to a better, than there is any war- 
rant for expecting from its continuance here. The 
grace of Jesus demands no stoical apathy. He, 
who, dying in agony, comforted from his cross the 
mother of his humanity, about to be bereaved of 



164 THE COVENANT. 

the best son that ever blest a maternal bosom, sees, 
from his throne, the sword which is piercing your 
heart also, sorrow-stricken mourner! Well he 
knows that the tears of your anguish must have 
way ; but, as you loved the child with an unuttera- 
ble, unselfish tenderness, which would have given 
your life to save its life from sin, or suffering, or 
sorrow, he bids you look up and find a more than 
compensating joy in its assumption to the bosom 
of God. For consider, believer, 

I. The covenant you have with God. 

" As for man, his days are as grass ; as a flower 
of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind pass- 
eth over it and it is gone ; and the place thereof 
shall know it no more." Change, death, oblivion, 
are the history of man upon earth'. When the 
grave takes one from our own household, our win- 
dows are darkened against the sunlight, we sit in 
solitude, and bury ourselves in gloom ; but the 
world is bustling on without, the laugh of passers 
by, the whoop of playing children, the rattle of 
carriages, distant strains of music, reach our mel- 



WE ALL DO FADE AS A LEAF. 165 

ancholy retreat, and we wonder how others can be 
so busy, or gay, or thoughtless, when all things 
seem to us so desolately sad. Yet is our trial no 
incredible or miraculous novelty. Though we can 
hardly realize that such beauty, such sweetness*, 
such promise, has passed from our arms and our 
homes, none besides ourselves would have pro- 
nounced it improbable. It is the lot of man to 
die. The hold of little children upon life is very 
slight. The chances of their dying or living are 
at least equal. Scarcely a household among our 
circle of friends, but has been visited by similar 
sorrow, which we thought not strange, though we 
sympathized with the mourners. How many, once 
living, are now lying in dust! The little babe, 
the strong man, the hoary grandsire ; the beggar 
buried by shallow charity ; the rich man, who was 
embalmed and had a long sumptuous funeral ; the 
slave, who fell wearily into a sleep no task-master's 
scourge could break ; the king, who built for him- 
self a tomb like a fortress ! How, with rare ex- 
ceptions, are they forgotten ! We know well nigh 



166 WE ALL DO FADE AS A LEAF. 

as little of him whose mummied corpse is torn by 
modern curiosity from the cell of a heaven-daring 
pyramid, built in his pride three thousand years 
ago ; as of the shipwrecked mariner, whose bones 
are crumbling, 

" Where rolls the Oregon, 
And hears no sound save its own dashings." 

" Man's days are as grass ;" and the field flowers 
of a past summer, with their little lives under sun- 
shine and shade, storm and shower, will be as 
much remembered as he, with the sorrows and joys 
which to him were so important. We must soon 
follow ; friends will weep for us, bury us, put up a 
marble memorial ; and, perchance, before the damp 
moss shall have grown over our names, we shall be 
forgotten, as though we never had been. The pla- 
ces which knew us, shall know us no more. 

Sad, indeed, is this story of humanity, but to 
the Christian sadder for, from his knowledge that 
all this change, death and infamy, are the fruits of 



THE CONTRAST OF THE PROMISE. 167 

sin ; nay, unless sin be expiated and repented of, 
the foreshado wings of eternal gloom, misery and 
shame. Repulsive as the idea of annihilation is, 
it were slight, to the horror of a miserable immor- 
tality ; and there is no anguish over the grave so 
great, as that which shudders at the recollection of 
the lost one having 

" died and left no sign " 

of preparation to meet his dread ordeal. 

Nothing can reconcile us to, or sustain us under 
such a lot for ourselves and those we love, but the 
covenant of mercy with God, by Jesus Christ, our 
Saviour, Resurrection, and Life. In strong con- 
trast to the melancholy picture, comes the light of 
promise. " The mercy of the Lord is from ever- 
lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and 
his righteousness unto children's children ; to such 
as keep his covenant, and to those that remember 
his commandments to do them" (Psalm ciii. 15- 
18). Convinced of the world's insufficiency ; more 



168 THE CONTRAST OF THE PROMISE 

deeply convinced of the corrupting guilt, which 
has made us children of wrath by reason of sin ; 
earnest after restoration to holiness and a perfect 
enjoyment of God, you have embraced this cove- 
nant ; you have called God your Father, and asked 
Him to take you among the number of his chil- 
dren, assured, that being His in so gracious a rela- 
tion, " all your concerns will be his also ; and all 
have been resigned to him, that they may be 
wisely administered by him, and incomparably 
better blessings bestowed and secured, than any 
which the most afflictive Providence can re- 
move."* 

As a sincere, believing, penitent Christian, you 
have desired that your heavenly Father would deal 
with you as is best for his own glory, in your 
sanctification for heaven ; and give, withhold, or 
take away, according to his all-wise, ever faithful, 
fatherly will. Your treasure is in heaven, and 
your heart is fixed where your treasure is laid up, 

* Doddridge. 



THE CONTRAST OF THE TROMISE. 169 

so that the events of this life are valuable to you, 
only as they affect your eternal interests ; and, as 
we have had occasion more than once to say, you 
cannot, or should not, be surprised at being called 
to affliction, which is the baptism of your Elder 
Brother, the discipline of your heavenly Father, 
and the foretold experience of all his children. 

With yourself, by this covenant, it was your 
high and most cherished privilege to consider 
your offspring included ; for " his mercy is unto 
children's children ;" as the Lord said to Abra- 
ham, " I will establish my covenant between me 
and thee, and between thee and thy seed after 
thee, in their generations, for an everlasting cove- 
nant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after 
thee" (Gen. xvii. 7) ; or, by the apostle to the 
gaoler at Philippi, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house" 
(Acts xvi. 31). It would have been an unspeak- 
able grief to you, if you could not have brought 
your children with you to the Lord. Like the 
mother of Samuel, you may have asked your child 
15 



170 CHILDREN INCLUDED 

of the Lord, and long before its birth, dedicated it 
to him (1 Sam. i. 11). When it was born, you 
rejoiced to think that you had gotten a child from 
the Lord (Gen. iv. 1), and were happy in the be- 
lief that he had intrusted it to you, as a rich trea- 
sure, to be kept and watched over for his praise ; 
saying with pious, grateful Hannah, "For this 
child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my 
petition which I asked of him ; therefore, also, I 
have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth he 
shall be lent unto the Lord" (1 Sam. i. 27, 28). 
Your prayer was, that the little one, like John, the 
Forerunner (Luke i. 15), and like John's greater 
Master (Is. xlix. 1), might be called and sanctified 
from the womb. Often have you knelt by the 
cradle side, or sat, holding your darling in your 
arms, pleading, with an earnestness which would 
not be denied, that He, in whom is your trust, 
would take the young life under his direction and 
overshadowing wings. Often have you asked 
grace to prepare the babe, through its growing 
years, by instruction, example, and salutary re- 



BY THE COVENANT. 171 

straint, for an immortal blessedness. Often have 
you shuddered at the evil which is in the world, 
lest it might be led astray from the path of life, 
and end its mortal course miserably. Often have 
you thought, that, rather than see it grow up in 
shame, profligacy, or hardened impenitence, you 
would give it back, its dust to earth, and its spirit 
to God. 

Now, my beloved mourning friend, has the 
covenant failed ? Has God not kept his engage- 
ment, or have you drawn back from yours? 
Your child has been taken from you only by the 
hand of Him, to whom you dedicated it. Hannah 
lent her child to the Lord, that he might serve be- 
fore the Lord in Shiloh, where was his tabernacle ; 
your child has been taken to serve before the Lord 
within the eternal Temple of the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem. The great promise of the covenant for your 
child has been fulfilled ; it is saved ; it is in the 
bosom of the Father ; it has been called and sanc- 
tified as from the womb ; and you have had the 
inestimable privilege, the highest honour which a 



172 THE COVENANT KEPT. 

paren can have, of giving from the fruit of your 
body, a glorified, immortal chorister, and priest, 
and king, to swell the heavenly song, and advance 
the heavenly worship. You have not heen per- 
mitted to discharge the office of its instructor and 
guardian, which, from your knowledge of your 
own frailty, you know would have been imper- 
fectly filled ; but God has done it for you ; accom- 
plished, in a few days, what your whole life might 
have failed to secure, and brought the babe, with- 
out the pangs of regeneration, the sorrows of re- 
pentance, the crucifixion of self-denial, or the 
fightings of faith against temptation, to the bliss- 
ful goal where you desired, yet might have failed, 
to bring it. You doubted not His truth, when 
you made the covenant with him ; will you doubt 
Him now that He has kept it, in the eternal re- 
demption of the child you mourn? 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 



THE CONSOLATION. 



CHAPTER XL 

IL The little one escaped from pain. III. The little 
one forever free from sin. iv. the little one per- 
fect in the knowledge of god. to go and be with 
Christ and his little ones is far better. The author's 
parting words. 

II. The little one has escaped from all pain. 

The Reformed Church, in her prayer at the 
baptism of children, calls " this life nothing but a 
continual death." For we are born under sen- 
tence of death, and life is one long disease from 
the cradle to the grave. It is very rarely, that 
any one goes through his pilgrimage, without 
much acute suffering, and the mortal agony is 

15* 1T3 



174 THIS LIFE 

sure to come. How many, whose beginning is 
of healthful promise, develope, as they grow, the 
seeds of constitutional suffering, perhaps, specially 
inherited from their parents ? Some dwindle into 
helpless idiocy ; some grow blind, or deaf, or 
dumb ; some are consumptive, or asthmatic, or 
dropsical ; some are crippled by weakness or ac- 
cident; so that all their days are a torture and 
burden, not only to themselves, but also to the 
friends who look upon them and nurse them. 

If they escape such suffering, they are often 
weary, exposed to heat, and storm, and cold, com- 
pelled to make arduous journeys, or to labour 
hardly for a pittance ; it may be, imprisoned, or 
exiled, or famished. Who would think, if they 
knew not the fact, that the old man tottering on 
his staff, his limbs rheumatic or gouty, his back 
bent, his brow seamed with deep wrinkles, his 
eyes dim, his ears dull, his hand tremulous, his 
voice broken and faint, was once a fair-browed, 
leaping, sportive, laughter-tongued child ? "We 
pity him for the long journey he has made, and 



A CONTINUAL DEATH. 175 

cannot with kindness regret when it comes to an 
end. He has lost all the relish of his enjoyments, 
and retains but the consequences of infirmity, im- 
prudence, toil or excess. Is it right to mourn, 
that the departed little one did not pass through 
the same experience to reach the same end, which 
it attained in a few days ? 

You hoped better things for your child, pictured 
to yourself its rosy youth, its vigorous manhood, 
its green old age ; the hope Was natural, but had 
it any warrant? All the while it was with you, 
you were. anxious lest, being well, it might become 
sick ; a chill from an open window, a sun-stroke, a 
surfeit, a fall, infection, contagion, epidemic, were 
all dreaded ; you held it to your bosom, covered 
it at night, allowed it to play, fearfully apprehen- 
sive, for you knew not what an hour might bring 
upon it. When it was sick, how painful was it to 
see its flushed or pale cheek, its spasmodic con- 
tractions, and its little eye, appealing for relief no 
mortal kindness or skill could afford ; to hear its 
cries, its moanings even in the sleep which was 



176 THE LITTLE ONE 

not rest ; to feel the hot brow, the galloping pulse, 
or the beat of the current growing less and less ; 
until, as death brought his cruel work to a close, 
you well nigh prayed that the struggle might 
cease, and its sufferings be over, forever. 

Now its pains are all over. The little body is 
sleeping hushed and calm, returning to dust, that 
it may be raised incorruptible, immortal, beautiful, 
among those happy mansions, where " the inhabit- 
ants shall no more say, I am sick" (Is. xxxiii. 24) ; 
where they " hunger no more, neither thirst any 
mpire/' where " the sun doth not light upon them, 
nor any heat," neither shall there be any more 
pain, " for the former things have passed away ;" 
a and the Lamb, which is in the midst of the 
throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 16, 17; 
xxi. 4). How earnestly did you implore the phy- 
sician to search for some means of healing the 
disease, and relieving the pain of your precious 
sufferer ! How did you pray God to bless the re- 



IN IMMORTAL HEALTH. 177 

medics used ! Yet human skill, however then 
blessed with success, could have given no security, 
no sovereign prophylactic against future illness. 
But the Great, the Good Physician, who healed 
the sick, and lame, and blind, and leprous with his 
touch, nay, stood beside the tomb, Conqueror of 
Death, the Resurrection and the Life, has heard 
your prayer, and restored your little one to im- 
mortal health and beauty, bearing it in the arms 
of his holy angels to a blessed clime, where all is 
new, and bright, and serene, and full of joy, that 
never again it might know the ills of mortal being. 
Very sweet was it for you to look upon your 
child, laughing in your arms, or playing with its 
fellows on the shaded sod and among the flowers ; 
but now it is rejoicing on its heavenly Father's 
bosom, or under the Tree of Life, in the sinless, 
thornless, unfading Paradise of the redeemed. 
Would you call it back to the sick-bed, the un- 
certain life, the certain death, which must await it 
here? Would you replace the crown encircling 
its brow by wrinkles and gray hairs, or hush its 



178 THE CONFLICT 

glad song for the sighing, the groaning, the moans 
of earth ? Would you take it from the arms of 
God, even to your own ? Would you ask that it 
might return, to become itself a parent, and suffer 
the anguish which is now tearing your heart- 
strings? No, Christian parent, you loved your 
child, you love it still too well ! 

III. The little one is forever free from sin. 

Sin is the greatest of all a Christian's troubles, 
because not only the occasion but the provocation 
of them. The sorrows, which it brings upon him, 
are the most distressing, from the fact that they 
prove the displeasure of his Maker. His great 
hope for eternity is perfect deliverance from sin ; 
Christ is most precious to him as the Saviour from 
sin ; the Holy Ghost most desired as the Sancti- 
fier of his sinful nature ; and he longs for the hour 
when he shall serve God without any admixture of 
error or fault. But so long as he is on earth, sin 
within him, and temptation without him, keep him 
in constant trouble. The denial of his carnal 
tendencies, can be compared only to crucifixion ; 



WITH SIN. 179 

there is no moment when he must not watch and 
pray ; nay, he must wrestle in hard fight, with in- 
visible, mighty, ever-active, subtle and most ma- 
licious enemies, who, but for omnipotent succour, 
would certainly overcome and destroy him. " 0, 
wretched man that I am !" exclaimed even the 
strong apostle Paul, " who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24.) The 
early Church would have been in despair, but for 
the assurance, that " the God of peace would short- 
ly bruise Satan under their feet" (Rom. xvi. 20). 
The promise to faith is victory over the world (1 
John v. 4). The crown of life will be given to 
him, who, having " endured hardness as a good 
soldier of Jesus Christ " (2 Tim. ii. 3), shall have 
overcome even as Christ overcame (Rev. iii. 21). 
With all the exceeding great and precious promis- 
es of our Lord and Saviour, what anxiety and fear 
and trembling are in our hearts, lest we should 
come short at last! (Heb. iv. 1). Through what 
tribulation must we not pass, in our danger- 
thronged pilgrimage, before, purified as it were by 



180 PERILS OF LIFE. 

fire, we can enter the kingdom of God ! (Acts 
xiv. 22). 

Had the little one lived to make a journey as 
long as ours, its experience would have been the 
same, perhaps, far worse. The seeds, the occa- 
sions of sin were in its human nature. It would 
have transgressed the commandments of God, and 
have been in peril of eternal death ; the flesh 
would have urged it, the world tempted it, Satan 
assailed and deceived it, for aught you know, fa- 
tally. Your own sinfulness and infirmity for good, 
proves your child, as well as yourself, to have been 
of a fallen family. You may have promised to 
yourself, every possible pains and prayer and pru- 
dence, to train it up for God ; and certainly His 
promises are very strong to sincere, prayerful, hard- . 
working faith ; but, with all your consciousness of 
repeated failures and oft-broken vows, can you be 
sure that your faith would have been so firm and 
zealous as to secure the blessing ? Adam had his 
Cain, Noah his Ham, Abraham his Ishmael, Isaac 
his Esau, Jacob more than one ingrate, Aaron his 



PARENTAL DISAPPOINTMENTS. 181 

Nadab and Abihu, Eli his Hophni and Phinehas, 
Samuel his Joel and Abiali, David liis Absalom, 
and Josiah his Jehoiakim ; nor are we without 
daily instances of profligate children breaking the 
hearts of pious parents, and bringing down their 
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. It is trying 
to think, that such could possibly be the issue of a 
life so dear and promising as that of your departed 
little one ; yet such, you see, it might have been, 
even if you had all the faith and spiritual ad- 
vantage of those sainted parents we have named. 
Think of the deeper anguish you might suffer, 
from the profligacy, the disgrace, the thankless 
hard-heartedness, the hopeless death, of a babe 
now safe in glory, had it been left here to grow up 
in sin ! O, what bitter sorrow was that of Aaron, 
when his impious sons were smitten down, and he 
could do nothing but hold his peace !" (Lev. x. 3). 
What desolate despair was in the cry of David, 
H 0, my son Absalom ! My son, my son Absalom ! 
Would God I had died for thee, 0, Absalom my 
son, my son!" (2 Sam. xviii. 33). But, what 
16 



182 A CONTRAST. 

a contrast of pious, hopeful resignation, was the 
spirit of David, when the little child of Bathsheba, 
though the child of his sin, was taken from him : 
" While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept ; 
for I said, who can tell whether God will be ora- 
cious to me, that the child may live ? But, now he 
is dead, wherefore should I fast ? Can I bring him 
back again ? / shall go to him, but he shall not 
return to me !" (2 Sam. xii. 22, 23). The full- 
grown, beautiful, darling, but wicked Absalom, 
died without hope ; the separation so far as mortal 
could see, was eternal ; the little child, as yet un- 
condemned for actual sin, was safe, where a pious 
faith would bring his father again to his company. 
Your little one is safe, safe from the pollutions 
of the flesh, safe from the temptations of the world, 
safe from the malice of Satan ; safe from sin, from 
guilt, from eternal death ; safe in the holy arms of 
Jesus, singing a better song than ever saint sung 
on earth, without a stain upon its conscience, a 
tear in its eye, or a shadow on its soul ; washed in 
the Saviour's blood ; clothed in a purer, more lus- 



THE LITTLE ONE SAFE. 183 

trous garment than little Samuel's linen ephod, the 
fine linen of the saints, the righteousness of Jesus ; 
the palm of victory in the hand that never struck 
a blow, a crown upon the head without a scar, and 
sweeter hosannas on its pure lips, than those 
that rung around the delighted Saviour within the 
temple below ; safe in bliss, safe in holiness, safe 
now, and safe forever ! The least in that kingdom 
is greater than the greatest here. Would you 
bring the holy, happy little one back to earth, from 
that sinless home, where, your earnest prayer was 
that it might be brought by the Saviour's grace, 
and your best hope for yourself that you may be 
so also ? No, believing mourner, your child is 
gone before and entered the inheritance ; some 
space remains for you to travel ; but gird up your 
loins, and go to seek the beloved, who cannot re- 
turn to you ! 

IV. The little one is now perfect in the knowl- 
edge of God. 

The education of children is the most important, 
delightful, yet anxious duty of Christian parents. 



184 EDUCATION OF 

To train them up in useful religious knowledge for 
an honorable life here, and eternal life hereafter, re- 
quires the most watchful, patient, skilful care ; be- 
cause, in early years, the elements of adult char- 
acter are gathered, and principles of future action 
are established. No pious parent can contemplate 
the progress of a child towards maturity without 
deep solicitude. How many obstacles impede the 
-discharge of this sacred office ? The father has 
the cares of his business upon him ; the mother of 
her family and household. Not a few are con- 
scious of wanting the information, or tact, or time, 
to teach aright. They are obliged to call in the 
aid of other teachers, perhaps to send the child 
away from them, where they may have advantages 
not enjoyed at home. 

The affairs of life, and the accomplishment of 
manners, require much study and attention. Reli- 
gion, the most important of all, if not thrust into 
the back ground, has but a small part of the child's 
thoughts. The very art, which is the key of knowl- 
edge, opens, in hurtful books, stores of corruption. 



CHILDREN DIFFICULT. 185 

The graceful refinements which adorn the body 
and the mind for a position in society, expose to 
the temptations of worldliness. The companion- 
ship, necessary to success, is full of dangerous as- 
sociations. The pious parent is harrassed by con- 
flicting extremes ; and, after the utmost pains, lia- 
ble to severe disappointments, for both time and 
eternity. How often has your prayer been put up 
for grace to guide your child safely through the 
mazes of the world to the inheritance of the 
righteous ? 

Your prayer has been heard. God has relieved 
you of your office, and become, in his holy house, 
your child's best Teacher. Your little one, now, 
needs no instruction to provide for the wants of 
this life, to guard against the dishonesties of men, 
or to win the uncertain favour of a false world ; no 
painful studies and restraints to secure laborious 
science ; no chastisements to check the yet pliant 
passion, or to make folly timely bitter. It has 
gone to a world, where they neither hunger nor 
thirst; where the sweat of toil is never on the 
16* 



186 GOD THE BEST TEACHER. 

brow, nor the weight of care upon the brain ; 
where, in the society of the holy blessed, there is 
none to tempt, defraud, or cajole ; where the only 
accomplishment is holiness, and the only business 
praise. 

God is now your little one's Teacher, and you 
should think of it as gone to the best school, to 
learn the best truth, and enter upon the best pur- 
suits. It has attained what you so earnestly hope 
to attain, the sight of God face to face. 

None can teach like God, for he knows the 
spirit he has made, and declares, by immediate 
communication, what is dimly revealed here 
through the shadowed glass of his immediate 
revelations. The angels, and the redeemed spi- 
rits of just men made perfect, are the companions 
and fellow students of your little one. All heaven, 
all creation, are open for your child's learning; 
and God employs its glorified powers in services 
expressly adapted to expand them and fill them 
with delight. There is now no sin to cloud its 
perceptions, to warp its judgment, or distract its 



HEAVEN THE BEST SCHOOL. 187 

thoughts. Babe as it was when it left this world 
a little while since, your child is wiser now than 
all the academies, and universities, and learned 
societies in the world; for it knows Him, whose 
chain of effect and cause it is the proper business 
of science to trace, even the First, Great, Only 
Cause of all. Its life is now the life of angels who 
excel in strength, admiring with the cherubim, 
burning among the seraphim, and glorifying, like 
a mirror reflecting light, the Wisdom upon the 
throne. There is a crowd of little ones around 
Jesus, Himself a Holy Child ; they are at his feet, 
looking up into his Divine face, listening to his 
gracious words, receiving his constant benedic- 
tions, and uttering his unceasing praise ; your 
child is among them. 

Yet is its immortality only begun ; its knowl- 
edge, though perfect in kind, is ever growing in 
degree : changed from glory to glory, its happy 
spirit will eternally expand in all that constitutes 
the excellence of spiritual being, love, knowledge, 
holiness and joy. 



188 AT THE FEET OF JESUS. 

Would you bring the lost, the saved one, back 
to the weakness of infancy ; the waywardness and 
pains of childhood ; the errors, the follies of youth ; 
the mistakes and the struggles of manhood ; the 
second childhood and imbecility of age ? Can you 
not spare your child for a few years, to be edu- 
cated in such a school, by such a Teacher, with 
such companions? Would you, could you, call 
the white-robed chorister from among his rejoicing 
fellows, chanting hallelujahs to the glorified ear of 
Christ? No, far rather strive to follow, faintly 
and at as long an interval, as you must amidst the 
impediments of earth, and sin, and infirmity, its 
celestial progress, becoming yourself, by imitation 
of Jesus, more and more like a little child ; until, 
in some bright hour, Jesus shall send his angel for 
you, and make you as happy, holy, glorious as 
your child. 



PARTING WORDS. 189 

Beloved friends, in sympathy with whose sor- 
rows these pages have been written, not without 
prayer and searching of the Scriptures, by one 
who desires humbly to call himself your servant, 
" brother and companion in tribulation, and in the 
patience and kingdom of Jesus Christ ;" your 
Master, "whose I am and whom I serve," has 
said to you, 

Suffer little children to come unto me ! 

forbid them not, by one repining thought, one 
vain regret, one unbelieving fear ! Weep, for 
Jesus wept ; but sorrow not without hope : they 
sleep in Jesus ; they shall be raised from the dust 
incorruptible, made like to Christ's most glorious 
body, and enter the fulness of redemption. Weep, 
for nature must have relief; but weep in faith on 
the bosom of Him, who, from the cross, comforted 
his only parent ; yet a little while and He will take 
you up, where you shall weep no more. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus ! Amen. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES, 



ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



EARLY LOST, EARLY SAVED. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

Within her downy cradle there lay a little child, 
And a group of hovering angels unseen upon her 

smiled ; 
A strife arose among them, a loving, holy strife, 
Which should shed the richest blessing over the 

new-born life. 

One breathed upon her features, and the babe in 
beauty grew, 

With a cheek like morning's blushes, and an eye 
of azure hue ; 

Till every one who saw her, were thankful for the 
sight 

Of a face so sweet and radiant with ever fresh de- 
light. 

191 



192 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Another gave her accents, and a voice as musical 
As a spring bird's joyous carol, or a rippling 

streamlet's fall ; 
Till all who heard her laughing, or her words of 

childish grace, 

Loved as much to listen to her, as to look upon 
her face. 

Another brought from heaven a clear and gentle 
mind, 

And within the lovely casket the precious gem en- 
shrined ; 

Till all who knew her wondered, that God should 
be so good, 

As to bless with such a spirit our desert world and 
rude. 

Thus did she grow in beauty, in melody and truth, 
The budding of her childhood just opening into 

youth ; 
And to our hearts yet dearer, every moment than 

before, 
She became, though we thought fondly, heart 

could not love her more. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 193 

Then out-spake another angel, nobler, brighter 

than the rest, 
As with strong arm, but tender, he caught her to 

his breast : 
"Ye have made her all too lovely for a child of 

mortal race, 
But no shade of human sorrow shall darken o'er 

her face. 

"Ye have tuned to gladness only the accents of 

her tongue, 
And no wail of human anguish shall from her lips 

be wrung ; 
Nor shall the soul that shineth so purely from 

within 
Her form of earth-born frailty, ever know the taint 

of sin. 

"Lulled in my faithful bosom, I will bear her far 

away, 
Where there is no sin, nor anguish, nor sorrow, 

nor decay; 

17 



194 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And mine a boon more glorious than all your gifts 
shall be — 

Lo ! I crown her happy spirit with immortality !" 

Then on his heart our darling yielded up her gen- 
tle breath, 

For the stronger, brighter angel, who loved her 
best, was Death ! 



THE UPPER CHOIR. 

CAROLINE MAY. 

Oh life ! how chequered and how shady, 

Are e'en thy paths of purest joy ! 
I saw a pale and low-voiced lady 

Clad in deep mourning for her boy. 
Her grief was quiet, deep and tearless, 

But her white cheek and whisper faint, 
Told her heart's void, so blank and cheerless, 

Better than tears or loud complaint. 

And Ah ! she said, he was so beautiful, 
With his clear eyes and snowy brow ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 195 

So frank and loving, and so dutiful, 

His will to mine would ever bow 
With glad obedience, quick and ready ; 

Raising his bright and searching glance, 
He read, with insight sure and steady, 

My wishes in my countenance. 
So fond of music and of singing ; 

Alone, with no one by to hear, 
His childish voice was ever ringing 

With some sweet hymn of pleasant cheer. 

He loved his minister most truly ; 

And he, too, dearly loved my boy, 
Who every morn and evening duly 

Came up to church with reverend joy. 
His place was right before the altar, 

Among a glad young company, 
"Whose well-trained voices did not falter, 

In chanted psalm or melody. 
I missed him there one Sabbath morning ; 

I could not see that happy face, 
Whose beauty was like Spring's fair dawning, 

Beaming in its accustomed place ; 



196 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And through the service and the singing, 

I wondered where my boy could be : 
My every thought, alas ! seemed clinging 

To him, with wild idolatry. 
And, oh ! I sighed, if Death should ever 

Snatch from my heart that precious one, 
How could I live, with what endeavour 

Bear up beneath life's darkened sun ? 

Just then he bounded past before me, 

With glowing cheeks, and smile so bright, 
And eyes whose gladness kindled o'er me 

An answering flame of pure delight. 
"Up by the organ I've been sitting, 

It was our minister's desire ; 
For, mother dear, he says I 'm fitting 

To sing among the upper choir ." 

The upper choir ! I echoed faintly, 
Thrilled with a sudden thrust of pain, 

While on his brow so fair and saintly, 
I read another meaning plain. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 197 

The upper choir ! It seemed a warning, 
A knell that rang with solemn dread. 

Alas ! 't was true ; — for from that morning 
But two weeks passed, and he was dead ! 

And now, although a mother only 

Could fathom all the hidden deeps 
That lie within my bosom lonely, 

Where brooding memory never sleeps — 
Yet still the pang that thrills within me 

When missing his beloved voice, 
Is hushed and soothed by hopes that win me, 

E'en in my sorrow, to rejoice. 
And those brief words of eager pleasure, 

My darling spoke that Sabbath morn, 
Are running over with full measure 

Of comfort to my heart forlorn. 
Christ, the dear Minister who standeth, 

In His great majesty of love, 
At God's right hand, and aye commandeth 

The Church below and Church above : 

17* 



198 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Christ loved my child, and saw him fitted 
For worship holier and higher ; 

Christ called him, and he gladly quitted 
The lower for the Upper Choir. 



ON A FAIR INFANT. 

MILTON. 

fairest flower, no sooner shown than blasted, 
Soft, silken primrose, fading timelessly, 

Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst outlasted 
Bleak Winter's force that made thy blossom dry ; 
For he, being amorous on that lovely dye 

That did thy cheek en vermeil, thought to kiss, 

But killed, alas ! and then bewailed his fatal bliss. 

Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, 

Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb, 

Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed, 
Hid from the world in a low delved tomb, 
Could Heaven, for pity, thee so strictly doom ? 

Oh, no ! for something in thy face did shine 

Above mortality, that showed thou wast Divine. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 199 

All ! wert tliou of the golden-winged host, 
Who, having clad thyself in human weed, 

To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post, 
And after short abode fly back with speed, 
As if to show what creatures heaven doth breed ; 

Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire, 

To scorn the sordid world, and unto heaven aspire. 

But, oh ! why didst thou not stay here below ? 
To bless us with thy heaven-loved innocence, 

To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe, 
To turn swift-rushing black Perdition hence, 
Or drive away the slaughtering Pestilence, 

To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart ? 

But thou canst best perform that office where thou 
art. 

Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child, 
Her false-imagined loss cease to lament, 

And wisely think to curb thy sorrows wild ; 
Think what a present thou to God hast sent, 
And render him with patience what he lent ; 

This, if thou do, he will an offspring give, 

That, till the world's last end, shall make thy name 
to live. 



200 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

HYMN TO NIGHT. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

Yes ! bear them to their rest ; 
The rosy babe tired with the glare of day, 
The prattler fall'n asleep ev'n in his play; 

Clasp them to thy soft breast, 
Night, 
Bless them in dreams with a deep-hushed delight ! 

Yet must they wake again ; 
Wake soon to all the bitterness of life, 
The pang of sorrow, the temptation strife, 

Aye, to the conscience-pain. 
O Night, 
Canst thou not take with them a longer flight ? 

Canst thou not bear them far, 
Ev'n now all innocent, before they know 
The taint of sin, its consequence of wo, 

The world's distracting jar, 
O Night, 
To some eternal, holier, happier height ? 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 20] 

Canst thou not bear them up, 
Through 6tar-lit skies, far from this planet dim 
And sorrowful, ev'n while they sleep, to Him, 

Who drank for us the cup, 
Night, 
The cup of wrath for souls in faith contrite ? 

To Him, for them who slept 
A babe all lowly on his mother's knee, 
And, from that hour to cross-crowned Calvary, 
In all our sorrows wept, 
O Night, 
That on our souls might dawn heaven's cheering 
light ? 

Go lay their little heads 
Close to that human breast, with love Divine 
Deep beating ; while His arms immortal twine 
Around them as He sheds, 
Night, 
On them a brother's grace of God's own boundless 
might. 



202 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Let them, immortal, wake 
Among the deathless flowers of Paradise, 
Where angels' songs of welcome with surprise 

This their last sleep may break ; 
O Night, 
And to celestial joys their kindred .souls invite. 

There can come no sorrow ; 
The brow shall know no shade, the eye no tears ; 
Forever young through heaven's eternal years 
In one unfading morrow, 
O Night, 
Nor sin, nor age, nor pain, their cherub beauty 
blight. 

Would we could sleep as they 
So stainless and so calm ; at rest with thee, 
And only wake in immortality. 

Bear us with them away, 
O Night, 
To that eternal, holier, happier height. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 203 

THE DYING. 

THOMAS HOOD. 

"We watched her breathing through the night, 
Her breathing soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 
Kept heaving to and fro. 

" So silently we seemed to speak, 
So slowly moved about, 
As we had lent her half our powers 
To eke her living out. 

" Our very hopes belied our fears, 

Our fears our hopes belied — 

We thought her dying when she slept, 

And sleeping when she died. 

" For when the morn came dim and sad, 
And chill with early showers, 
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had 
Another morn than ours." 



204 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 



LITTLE CHILDREN. 

1 The smallest planet is nearest the sun. Ye stand nearest 
to God, ye little ones." 

Nearest to God in childhood ! It is true, 

For then the heart wears not the deepened stain 
That after years bear to it ; morn's sweet dew 

Has not yet sought in the blue sky, again, 
Its first fair home ; Hope's sunshine is unshaded, 
Joy's opening blossoms have not drooped or faded ; 
Life's verdant paths have not been sadly trod 
By weary feet ! — the heart is near to God. 

Yes, ye are near to God, ye little ones ! 

Nearer than those whose bright eyes have grown 
dim 
With bitter tears — to whose sad heart there comes 

No day unmarked by suffering and sin. 
Ye have not found, amid earth's blooming bowers, 
Shadows with sunbeams blended, thorns with 
flowers ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 205 

Ye sport in sinless mirth on the green sod 
'Neath the blue sky ; — yes, ye are near to God. 

And near are ye to human hearts — more near 
Than aught else can be ; for the soul will love, 

E'en in the shadows of its dwelling here, 
Aught that reminds it of its home above. 

Ye whisper to us of a sky unclouded : 

Of joy, by grief's dark mantle ne'er enshrouded — 

Of paths by mortal footstep, never trod ; 

Blessings upon you ! Ye are near to God. 



ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT. 

She glanced into our world, to see 
A sample of our misery ; 
Then turned away her languid eye 
To drop a tear or two, and die. 

18 



206 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

She tasted of life's bitter cup, 
Refused to drink the portion up ; 
But turned her little head aside, 
Disgusted with the taste, and died. 

She listened for a while to hear 

Our mortal griefs, then turned her ear 

To angel harps and songs, and cried 

To join their notes celestial, sighed, and died. 

Sweet babe no more, but angel now, 
Before the throne behold her bow, 
Her soul enlarged to angel size, 
Joins in the triumph of the skies ; 
Adores the God that brought her there, 
Without a wish, without a care ; 
That washed her soul in Calvary's stream : 
That shortened life's distressing dream, 
Short pain, short grief, dear babe, was thine, 
Now joys eternal and Divine. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 207 



THE JOY OF THE DEAD. 

GILES FLETCHER. 

No sorrow now hangs clouding on their brow, 
No bloodless malady impales their face, 
No age drops on their hairs his silver snow, 
No nakedness their bodies doth embrace, 
No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace ; 
No fear of death the joy of life devours, 
No unchaste sleep the precious night deflours, 
No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged 
hours, 

And if a sullen cloud, as sad as night, 
In which the sun may seem embodied, 
Deprived of all his dross, we see so white, 
Burning in melting gold his watery head, 
Or round with ivory edges silvered ; 
What lustre superexcellent will He 
Lighten on those that shall his sunshine see, 
In that all-glorious court in which all glories be ! 



208 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

THE FAREWELL TO THE DEAD. 

MRS. HE MANS. 

Come near ! — ere yet the dust 
Soil the bright paleness of the settled brow, 
Look on your brother and embrace him now, 

In still and solemn trust ! 
Come near ! — once more let kindred lips be pressed 
On his cold cheek ; then bear him to his rest ! 

Look yet on this young face ! 
What shall the beauty from amongst us gone, 
Leave of its image, even where most it shone, 

Gladdening its hearth and race ? 

Dim grows the semblance on man's heart im- 
pressed — 
Come near, and bear the beautiful to rest. 

Ye weep, and it is well ! 
For tears befit earth's partings ! Yesterday 
Song was upon the lips of this pale clay, 

And sunshine seemed to dwell 
Where'er he moved — the welcome and the blessed ! 
Now gaze ! and bear the silent unto rest ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 209 

Look yet on him, whose eye 
Meets yours no more, in sadness or in mirth ! 
Was he not fair amidst the sons of earth, 

The beings born to die ? 
— But not where death has power may love be 

blessed — 
Come near ! and bear ye the beloved to rest ! 

How may the mother's heart 
Dwell on her son, and dare to hope again % 
The spring's rich promise hath been given in vain, 

The lovely must depart ! 
Is he not gone, our brightest and our best ? 
Come near ! and bear the early-called to rest ! 

Look on him ! is he laid 
To slumber from the harvest or the chase ? 
Too still and sad the smile npon his face, 

Yet that, even that, must fade ! 
Death holds not long unchanged his fairest guest, 
Come near ! and bear the mortal to his rest ! 

His voice of mirth had ceased 
Amidst the vineyards ! there is left no place 
18* 



210 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

For him whose dust receives your vain embrace, 

At the gay bridal feast ! 
Earth must take earth to moulder on her breast ; 
Come near ! weep o'er him ! bear him to his rest ! 

Yet mourn ye not as they 
Whose spirit's light is quenched ! for him the past 
Is sealed. He may not fall, he may not cast 

His birthright's hope away ! 
All is not here of our beloved and blessed — 
Leave ye the sleeper with his God to rest ! 



WEEP NOT FOR HER! 

NOCTES AMBROSIANJE. 

Weep not for her ! Her span was like the sky, 
Whose thousand stars shine beautiful and bright ; 

Like flowers, that know not wdiat it is to die ; 
Like long-linked, shadeless months of polar 
light; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 211 

Like music floating o'er a waveless lake, 
While echo answers from the flowery brake : 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! She died in early youth, 

Ere hope had lost its rich romantic hues ; 
When human bosoms seemed the homes of truth, 
And earth still gleamed with beauty's radiant 
dews. 
Her summer prime waned not to days that freeze ; 
Her wine of life was run not to the lees : 
Weep not for her! 

Weep not for her ! By fleet or slow decay, 
It never grieved her bosom's core to mark 
The playmates of her childhood wear away, 

Her prospects wither, or her hopes grow dark ; 
Translated by her God, with spirit shriven, 
She passed, as 't were in smiles, from earth to 
heaven ! 

W T eep not for her ! 



212 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Weep not for her ! It was not her's to feel 
The miseries that corrode amassing years, 

'Gainst dreams of baffled bliss the heart to steel, 
To wander sad down age's vale of tears, 

As whirl the withered leaves from friendship's tree, 

And on earth's wintry world alone to be 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! She is an angel now, 
And treads the sapphire floors of paradise ; 

All darkness wiped from her refulgent brow, 
Sin, sorrow, suffering, banished from her eyes ; 

Victorious over death, to her appear 

The vista'd joys of heaven's eternal year : 
Weep not for her ! 

Weep not for her ! Her memory is the shrine 
Of pleasant thoughts, soft as the scent of flowers. 

Calm as on windless eve the sun's decline, 

Sweet as the song of birds among the bowers, 

Rich as the rainbow, with its hues of light, 

Pure as the moonshine of an autumn's night ; 
Weep not for her ! 



CONSOLATORY ♦YERSES. 213 

Weep not for her ! There is no cause for wo ; 

But rather nerve the spirit, that it walk 
Unshrinking o'er the thorny paths below, 

And from earth's low defilements keep thee back ; 
So, when a few fleet severing years have flown, 
She '11 meet thee at heaven's gate, and lead thee on ! 
Weep not for her ! 



0, STAY THOSE TEARS. 

ANDREWS NORTON. 

0, stay thy tears ! for they are blest 

Whose days are past ; whose toil is done. 

Here midnight care disturbs our rest ; 
Here sorrow dims the noonday sun. 

For labouring virtue's anxious toil, 
For patient sorrow's stifled sigh, 

For faith that marks the conqueror's spoil, 
Heaven grants the recompense to die. 



214 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

How blest are they whose transient years, 
Pass like an evening meteor's flight ; 

Not dark with guilt, nor dim with tears ; 
Whose course is short, unclouded, bright. 

How cheerless were our lengthened way, 

Did heaven's own light not break the gloom ; 

Stream downward from eternal day, 
And cast a glory round the tomb ! 

Then stay thy tears ; the blest above 
Have hailed a spirit's heavenly birth ; 

Sung a new song of joy and love, 

And why should anguish reign on earth ? 



TO AN INFANT IN HEAVEN. 

THOMAS WARD. 

Thou bright and starlike spirit ! 

That in my visions wild, 
I see, mid heaven's seraphic host, 

Oh ! canst thou be my child ? 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 216 

Our hopes of thee were lofty, 

But have we cause to grieve ? 
Oh ! could our fondest, proudest wish 

A nobler fate conceive ? 

The little weeper, tearless, 

The sinner snatched from sin ; 
The babe to more than manhood grown, 

Ere childhood did begin. 

And I, thy earthly teacher, 

Would blush thy power to see ; 
Thou art to me a parent now, 

And I, a child to thee ! 

What bliss is born of sorrow, 

'T is never sent in vain, 
The heavenly surgeon maims to save, 

He gives no useless pain. 

Our God, to call us homeward, 

His only Son sent down, 
And now, still more to tempt our hearts, 

Has taken up our own. 



216 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 



OH! SAY NOT 'TWERE A KEENER BLOW. 

T. H. BAYLY. 

Oh ! say not 't were a keener blow, 

To lose a child of riper years ; 
You cannot feel a mother's wo, 

You cannot dry a mother's tears ; 
The girl who rears a sickly plant, 

Or cherishes a wounded dove, 
Will love them most while most they want 

The watchfulness of love ' 

Time must have changed that fair young brow ! 

Time might have changed that spotless heart ! 
Years might have taught deceit, but now 

In love's confiding dawn we part ! 
Ere pain or grief had wrought decay, 

My babe is cradled in the tomb ; 
Like some fair blossom torn away 

Before its perfect bloom. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 217 

With thoughts of peril and of storm, 

We see a bark first touch the wave ; 
But distant seems the whirlwind's form, 

As distant — as an infant's grave ! 
Though all is calm, that beauteous ship 

Must brave the whirlwind's rudest breath ; 
Though all is calm, that infant's lip 

Must meet the kiss of death ! 



LOW SHE LIES, WHO BLEST OUR EYES. 

MRS. NORTON. 

Low she lies, who blest our eyes 

Through many a sunny day ; 
She may not smile, she will not rise, — 

The life has past away ! 
Yet there is a world of light beyond, 

Where we neither die nor sleep ; 
She is there, of whom our souls were fond, 

Then, wherefore do we weep ? 

19 



218 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

The heart is cold, whose thoughts were told 

In each glance of her glad bright eye ; 
And she lies pale, who was so bright, 

She scarce seemVl made to die. 
Yet we know that her soul is happy now, 

Where the saints their calm watch keep ; 
That angels are crowning that fair young brow, 

Then, wherefore do we weep ? 

Her laughing voice made all rejoice, 

Who caught the happy sound ; 
There was gladness in her very step, 

As it lightly touched the ground. 
The echoes of voice and step are gone, 

There is silence still and deep ; 
Yet we know that she sings by God's bright 
throne. 

Then, wherefore do we weep ? 

The cheek's pale tinge, the lid's dark fringe, 

That lies like a shadow there, 
Were beautiful in the eyes of all, 

And her glossy golden hair ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 219 

But though that lid may never wake 

From its dark and dreamless sleep ; 
She is gone where young hearts do not break, 

Then, wherefore do we weep ? 

That world of light with joy is bright, 

This is a world of wo ; 
Shall we grieve that her soul has taken flight, 

Because we dwell below ? 
We will bury her under the mossy sod, 

And one long bright tress we '11 keep ; 
We have only given her back to God, 

Then, wherefore do we weep ? 



DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK. 

Young mother, he is gone ! 
His dimpled cheek no more will touch thy breaf t ; 

No more the music tone 
Float from his lips, to thine all fondly pressed ; 



220 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

His smile and happy laugh are lost to thee ; 
Earth must his mother and his pillow be. 

His was the morning hour, 
And he hath passed in beauty from the day, 

A bud, not yet a flower, 
Torn, in its sweetness, from the parent's spray ; 
The death-wind swept him to his soft repose, 
As frost, in spring-time, blights the early rose. 

Never on earth again 
Will his rich accents charm thy listening ear, 

Like some JSolian strain, 
Breathing at eventide serene and clear ; 
His voice is choked in dust, and on his eyes 
The unbroken seal of peace and silence lies. 

And from thy yearning heart, 
Whose inmost core was warm with love for him, 

A gladness must depart, 
Ana those kind eyes with many tears be dim ; 
While lonely memories, an unceasing train, 
Will turn the raptures of the past to pain. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 221 

Yet mourner, while the day, 
Rolls like the darkness of a funeral by, 

And hope forbids one ray 
To stream athwart the grief-discoloured sky ; 
There breaks upon thy sorrow's evening gloom, 
A trembling lustre from beyond the tomb. 

'T is from the better land ! 
There, bathed in radiance that around them springs, 

Thy loved one's wings expand ; 
As with the choiring cherubim he sings, 
And all the glory of that God can see, 
Who said, on earth, to children, " Come to me." 

Mother, thy child is blessed ; 
And though his presence may be lost to thee, 

And vacant leave thy breast, 
And missed a sweet load from thy parent knee ; 
Though tones familiar from thine ear have passed, 
Thou 'It meet thy first-born with his Lord at last. 

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222 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

MY CHILD. 

REV. JOHN PIERPONT. 

I cannot make him dead ! 

His fair sunshiny head. 
Is ever bounding round my study chair ; 

Yet, when my eyes, now dim 

With tears, I turn to him, 
The vision vanishes — he is not there! 

I walk my parlour floor, 

And through the open door, 
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair ; 

I 'm stepping toward the hall 

To give the boy a call ; 
And then bethink me that — he is not there ! 

I thread the crowded street ; 

A satchelled lad I meet, 
With the same beaming eyes and coloured hair ; 

And, as he 's running by, 

Follow him with my eye, 
Scarcely believing that — he is not there ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 223 

I know Lis face is Lid 

Under tlie coffin lid ; 
Closed are Lis eyes ; cold is Lis foreLead fair ; 

My Land tLat marble felt ; 

O'er it in prayer I knelt ; 
Yet my Leart wLispers tLat — Le is not tliere ! 

I cannot make Lim dead ! 

WLen passing by tlie bed, 
So long watcbed over witL parental care ; 

My spirit and my eye 

Seek it inquiringly, 
Before tLe tLougLt comes tLat — Le is not tLere! 

WLen, at the cool, gray break 

Of day, from sleep I wake, 
WitL my first breathing of the morning air 

My soul goes up, with joy, 

To Him who gave my boy, 
Then comes the sad thought that — he is not there! 

When at the day's calm close, 
Before we seek repose, 
I 'm witL Lis motLer, offering up our prayer, 



224 CONSOLATORY VEESES. 

Whatever I may be saying, 
I am in spirit praying 
For our boy's spirit, though — he is not there ! 

Not there ! Where, then, is he ? 

The form I used to see 
Was but the raiment that he used to wear. 

The grave, that now doth press 

Upon that cast-off dress, 
Is but his wardrobe locked ; he is not there ! 

He lives ! In all the past 

He lives ; nor, to the last, 
Of seeing him again will I despair 

In dreams I see him now ; 

And, on his angel brow, 
I see it written, " Thou shalt see me there /" 

Yes, we all live to God ! 

Father, thy chastening rod 
So help us, thine afflicted ones, to bear, 

That, in the spirit land, 

Meeting at thy right hand, 
'Twill be our heaven to find that — he is there! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 225 



ON THE DEATH OF A SON. 

W. B. 0. PEAEODY. 
* * * * * * * 

I never trusted to have lived 

To say farewell to thee, 
And almost said in agony, 

It oiio-ht not so to be ; 
I hope that thou within the grave 

My weary head shouldst lay, 
And live beloved, when I was gone, 

For many a happy day. 

With trembling hand, I vainly tried 

Thy dying eyes to close ; 
And almost envied, in that hour, 

Thy calm and deep repose ; 
For I was left in loneliness, 

With pain and grief oppressed, 
And thou wast with the sainted, 

Where the weary are at rest. 



226 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Yes, I am sad and weary now, 

But let me not repine, 
Because a spirit, loved so well, 

Is earlier blessed than mine ; 
My faith may darken as it will, 

I shall not much deplore, 
Since thou art where the ills of life 

Can never reach thee more. 



ON SEEING AN INFANT PREPARED FOR 
THE GRAVE. 



MRS. SIGOURNEY. 



Go to thy sleep, my child, 
Go to thy dreamless bed, 

Gentle and un defiled, 

With blessings on thy head : 

Fresh roses in thy hand, 
Buds on thy pillow laid, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 227 

Haste from this fearful land 
Where flowers so quickly fade. 

Before thy heart had learned 

In waywardness to stray, 
Before thy feet had turned 

The dark and downward way ; 
Ere sin had seared thy breast, 

Or sorrow woke the tear, 
Rise to thy home of rest 

In yon celestial sphere. 

Because thy smile was fair, 

Thy lip and eye so bright; 
Because thy cradle care 

Was such a fond delight, 
Shall Love with weak embrace 

Thy outspread wing detain ? 
No ! Angel, seek thy place 

Amid the cherub train. 



228 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

THOUGHTS WHILE MAKING A GRAVE FOR 
A FIRST CHILD, BORN DEAD. 

N. P. WILLIS. 

Room, gentle flowers! my child would pass to 

heaven ! 
Ye looked not for her yet with your soft eyes, 
Oh, watchful ushers at Death's narrow door ! 
But lo, while you delay to let her forth, 
Angels beyond, stay for her ! One long kiss 
From lips all pale with agony and tears, 
Wrung after anguish had dried up with fire 
The eyes that wept them, were the cup of life 
Held as a welcome to her. Weep, mother ! 
But not that from this cup of bitterness 
A cherub of the sky has turned away. 

One look upon her face ere she depart ! 
My daughter ! it is soon to let thee go ! 
My daughter ! with thy birth has gushed a spring 
I knew not of; filling my heart with tears, 
And turning with strange tenderness to thee ! 
A love — God, it seems so, which must flow 
Far as thou fleest, and 'twixt heaven aud me, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 229 

Henceforward, be a sweet and yearning chain, 
Drawing me after thee ! And so farewell ! 
'T is a harsh world in which affection knows 
No place to treasure up its loved and lost, 
But the lone grave ! Thou, who so late was sleeping 
Warm in the close folds of a mother's heart, 
Scarce from her breast a single pulse receiving, 
But it was sent thee with some tender thought ; 
How can I leave thee here ! Alas, for man ! 
The herb in its humility may fall, 
And waste into the bright aud genial air, 
While we by hands that ministered in life 
Nothing but love to us, are thrust away, 
The earth thrown in upon our just cold bosoms, 
And the warm sunshine trodden out forever ! 
Yet have I chosen for thy grave, my child, 
A bank where I have lain in summer hours, 
And thought how little it would seem like death, 
To sleep amid such loveliness. The brook 
Tripping with laughter down the rocky steps 
That lead us to thy bed, would still trip on, 
Breaking the dread hush of the mourners gone ; 
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230 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

The birds are never silent that build here, 
Trying to sing down the more vocal waters ; 
The slope is beautiful with moss and flowers ; 
And, far below, seen under arching leaves, 
Glitters the warm sun on the village spire, 
Pointing the living after thee ! And this 
Seems like a comfort ; and, replacing now 
The flowers that have made room for thee, I go 
To whisper the same peace to her who lies 
Eobbed of her child and lonely. 'T is the work 
Of many a dark hour, and of many a prayer, 
To bring the heart back from an infant gone ! 
Hope must give o'er, and busy fancy blot 
Its images from all the silent rooms, 
And every sight and sound familiar to her 
Undo its sweetest link ; and so, at last, 
The fountain that, once loosed, must flow forever, 
Will hide and waste in silence. When the smile 
Steals to her pallid lip again, and Spring 
Wakens its buds above thee, we will come, 
And, standing by thy music haunted grave, 
Look on each other cheerfully and say, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 231 

A child that we have loved is gone to heaven, 
And by this gate of flowers she passed away r 



THE SPIRIT OF THE DEPARTED. 

T. K. HERVEY. 

1 know thou art gone to thy home of rest ; 

Then why should my soul be sad ? 
I know thou art gone where the weary are blest ; 

And the mourner looks up and is glad ; 
Where love has put off, in the land of its birth, 

The stain it had gathered in this, 
And Hope, the sweet singer that gladdened the 
earth, 

Lies asleep on the bosom of Bliss. 

I know thou art gone where thy forehead is starred 
With the beauty that dwelt in thy soul, 

Where the light of thy loveliness cannot be marred, 
Nor thy heart be flung back from its goal. 

I know thou hast drunken of Lethe, that flows 
Through a land where they do not forget, 



232 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

That sheds over memory only repose, 
And takes from it only regret. 

This eye must be dark, that as yet is not dimmed, 

Ere again it may gaze upon thine ; 
But my heart has revealings of thee, and thy 
home, 

In many a token and sign : 
I never look up with a vow to the sky, 

But a light, like thy beauty, is there ; 
And I hear a low murmur, like thine, in reply, 

When I pour out my spirit in prayer. 

In thy far away dwelling, wherever it be, 

I believe thou hast visions of mine ; 
And thy love, that made all things as music to me, 

I have not yet learned to resign : 
In the hush of the night, on the waste of the sea, 

Or alone with the breeze on the hill, 
I have ever a presence that whispers of thee, 

And my spirit lies down and is still. 

And though like a mourner that sits by a tomb, 
I am wrapped in a mantle of care ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 233 

Yet the grief of ray bosom, oil ! call it not gloom, 

Is not the black grief of despair 
By sorrow revealed, as the stars are by night, 

Far off a bright vision appears, 
And Hope, like a rainbow, a creature of light, 

Is born, like the rainbow, in tears. 



THE GRAVE. 

JAMES G. BROOKS. 

The grave ! the grave ! oh, happy they, 

Whom death hath seized in early spring, 
Who sleep within the house of clay, 

Gathered when life is blossoming. 
The grave ! the grave ! ah ! sorrow there 

May aim her many shafts in vain, 
And the dark spectre of despair 

Stalks powerless in that domain. 

They sleep ! the selfish and the vile, 

Can never more their feelings wring ; 

Unkind deceit, and heartless guile, 

And envy, never more can sting : 
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234 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And love, which only lives to mourn, 
Can never blight their hearts again, 

For on the cold and senseless urn, 
His wasting mildews fall in vain. 

Then weep not, weep not for the dead, 

The cold clay doth not heed the tear ; 
But weep for those who how the head 

In life, when hope holds nothing dear ; 
Weep for the living, who conceal 

The moody madness of the breast ; 
Mourn not the dead, they cannot feel ! 

Mourn not the dead, they are at rest ! 



I HEAR THY VOICE, SPRING. 

W. J. PABODIE. 

I hear thy voice, Spring, 
Its flute-like tones are floating through the air, 
Winning my soul with their wild ravishing, 

From earth's heart- wearying care. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 235 

Divinely sweet thy song ; 
But yet methinks, as near the groves I pass, 
Low sighs on viewless wings are borne along, 

Tears gem the springing grass. 

For where are they, the young, 
The loved, the beautiful, who, when thy voice 
A year agone, along these valleys rung, 

Did hear thee and rejoice ? 

Thou seek'st for them in vain : 
No more they '11 greet thee in thy joyous round ; 
Calmly they sleep beneath the murmuring main, 

Or moulder in the ground. 

Yet peace, my heart, be still ! 
Look upward to yon azure sky, and know 
To heavenlier music now their bosoms thrill, 

Where balmier breezes blow. 

For them hath bloomed a Spring, 
Whose flowers perennial deck a holier sod, 
Whose music is the song that seraphs sing, 

Whose light, the smile of God. 



236 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

A PSALM OF DEATH. 

THE REAPER AND TEE FLO WERS. 

H. W. LONGFELLOW. 

" Dear beauteous Death ! the jewel of the just. 
Shining nowhere but in the dark. 
What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 
Could we outlook that mark !" 

There is a Reaper, whose name is Death, 

And with his sickle keen, 
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, 

And the flowers that grow between. 

" Shall I have nought that is fair," saith he, 
" Have nought but the bearded grain ? 

Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, 
I will give them all back again." 

He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes 

He kissed their drooping leaves ; 
It was for the Lord of Paradise, 

He bound them in his sheaves. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 237 

"My Lord hath need of the flowerets gay," 

The Reaper said, and smiled : 
" Dear tokens of the earth are they, 

Where he was once a child." 

" They shall all bloom in fields of light, 

Transplanted by my care, 
And saints upon their garments white, 

These sacred blossoms wear." 

And the mother gave, in tears and pain, 

The flowers she most did love, 
But she knew she should find them all again, 

In the fields of light above. 

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 

The Reaper came that day ; 
'T was an angel visited the green earth, 

And took the flowers away. 



238 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 



THE DYING BOY. 



J. H. BRIGHT. 



It must be sweet in childhood to give back 

The spirit to its Maker, ere the heart 

Has grown familiar with the paths of sin, 

And sown, to garner up its bitter fruits. 

I knew a boy, whose infant feet had trod 

Upon the blossoms of some seven springs, 

And when the eighth came round and called him 

out, 
To revel in its light, he turned away, 
And sought his chamber, to lie down and die. 
'T was night — he summoned his accustomed friends, 
And, on this wise, bestowed his last bequest : 

Mother, I 'm dying now ! 
There 's a deep suffocation injny breast, 
As if some heavy hand my bosom pressed ; 

And on my brow 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 239 

I feel the cold sweat stand : 
My lips grow dry and tremulous, and my breath 
Comes feebly up. Oh ! tell me, is this death ? 

Mother, your hand — 

Here — lay it on my wrist, 
And place the other thus beneath my head, 
And say, sweet mother, say, when I am dead, 

Shall I be missed ? 

Never beside your knee, 
Shall I kneel down again at night to pray, 
Nor with the morning wake, and sing the lay 

You taught to me. 

Oh ! at the time of prayer, 
When you look round, and see a vacant seat, 
You will not wait then for my coming feet, 

You '11 miss me there. 

Father, I 'm going home ! 
To the good home you spoke of; that blest land 
Where it is one bright summer always, and 

Storms never come. 



240 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

I must be happy then ; 
From pain and death you say I shall be free, 
That sickness never enters there, and we 

Shall meet again. 

Brother, the little spot 
I used to call my garden, where long hours 
We've staid to watch the budding things and 
flowers, 

Forget it not ! 

Plant there some box or pine, 
Something that lives in winter, and will be 
A verdant offering to my memory, 

And call it mine. 

Sister, my young rose tree, 
That all the spring has been my pleasant care, 
Just putting forth its leaves, so green and fair 

I give to thee. 

And when its roses bloom, 
I shall be gone away, my short life done ; 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 241 

But will you not bestow a single one 
Upon ray tomb ? 

Now, mother, sing the tune 
You sung last night ; I 'm weary and must sleep* 
"Who was it called my name ? Nay, do not weep, 

You '11 all come soon ! 

Morning spread o'er the earth her rosy wings, 
And that meek sufferer, cold and ivory pale, 
Lay on his couch asleep. The gentle air 
Came through the open window, freighted with 
The savoury odours of the early spring : 
He breathed it not : the laugh of passers by 
Jarred like a discord in some mournful tune, 
But wakened not his slumber. He was dead. 



A DIRGE. 

Beautiful on thy fair brow, 
Brother, death is sitting now ! 
Calmly as on mother's breast, 
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242 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Weary child, thou sluraberest, 
That deep sleep, which ne'er again 
Wakes to mortal grief and pain. 

Round thee, in the waning year, 
Leaves are falling sad and sear, 
Soon will winter's sighing blast, 
O'er thee strew them thick and fast; 
But in thy green spring-tide, thou, 
Gentle brother, liest low. 

Flowers are fading on thy bier, 
Hands of love had scattered here ; 
Meetly thus the sweets they fling 
O'er thee of their withering, 
In thy bright young bloom, like them, 
Severed from the natal stem. 

Yet, brother, not for thee 
Flow our tears of agony ! 
Even midst the darkness left 
O'er the home of thee bereft, 
From thy spirit's radiant track 
Who, who would call thee back ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 24$ 

When the rainbow shines o'erhead. 
Mourn we for the dew-drop fled ? 
Or, when springs the flower on high. 
That the buried seed should die ? 
Far less bright than thou art now, 
Flower of earth, or heavenly bow. 

Brother, like some silenced tone 
Of sweet music, art thou gone ! 
Ere thy light of youth grew dim, 
God hath taken thee to Him : 
— Welcome were the hour to me, 
Brother, to lie down with thee ! 



TO A DYING INFANT. 

Sleep, little baby ! sleep ! 

Not in thy cradle bed, 
Not on thy mother's breast 
Henceforth shall be thy rest, 

But with the quiet dead. 



244 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Yes ; with the quiet dead, 
Bab) 7 , thy rest shall be. 

Oh ! many a weary heart, 

Weary of life's dull part, 

Would fain lie down with thee. 

Flee, little tender nursling ! 

Flee to thy grassy nest ; 
There the first flowers shall blow, 
The first pure flakes of snow 

Shall fall upon thy breast. 

Peace ! peace ! the little bosom 

Labours with shortening breath: 
Peace ! peace ! that tremulous sigh 
Speaks his departure nigh ; 

These are the damps of d^tK 

I Ve seen thee in thy beauty, 
A thing all life and glee ; 

But never then wert thou 

So beautiful as now, 

Baby, thou seem'st to me. 

***** 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 245 

THE THREE SONS; OR, FAITH 
TRIUMPHANT. 

BY REV. J. MOULTRIE, A. M. 
I. 

I have a son, a little son, 

A boy just five years old, 
With eyes of thoughtful earnestness, 

A mind of gentle mould. 

They tell me that unusual grace 

In all his ways appears, 
That my child is grave, and wise of heart* 

Beyond his childish years. 

I cannot say how this may be, 

I know his face is fair, 
And yet his chiefest comeliness 

Is his sweet and serious air. 

I know his heart is kind and fond, 

I know he loveth me, 
But he loveth yet his mother more, 

With grateful fervency. 

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246 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But that which others most admire, 
Is the thought that fills his mind, 

The food for grave, inspiring speech, 
He every where doth find. 

Strange questions doth he ask of me, 

When we together walk ; 
He scarcely thinks as children think, 

Or talks as children talk. 

Nor cares he much for childish sports, 

Dotes not on bat or ball, 
But looks on manhood's ways and works, 

And aptly mimics all. 

His little heart is busy still, 

And oftentimes perplexed 
With thoughts about this world of ours, 

And thoughts about the next. 

He kneels at his dear mother's, knees, 

She teaches him to pray, 
And strange, and sweet, and solemn, then, 

Are the words which he will say. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 247 

Oh, should my gentle child be spared, 

To manhood's years, like me, 
A holier and a wiser man 

I trust that he will be. 

And when I look into his eyes, 

And on his thoughtful brow, 
I dare not think what I should feel, 

Were I to lose him now. 

II. 

I have a son, a second son, 
A simple child of three ; 
igl 
His little features be. 



I '11 not declare how bright and fair 



I do not think his light blue eye 

Is like his brother's keen, 
Nor his brow so full of childish thought 

As his hath ever been. 

But his little heart 's a fountain pure, 
Of kind and tender feeling, 



248 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And his every look 's a gleam of light, 
Rich depths of love revealing. 

When he walks with me, the country folk, 

Who pass us in the street, 
Will shout for joy, and bless my boy, 

He looks so mild and sweet. 

A playfellow is he to all, 

And yet, with cheerful tone, 

Will sing his little song of love, 
When left to sport alone. 

His presence is like sunshine, sent 
To gladden home, the earth, 

To comfort us in all our griefs, 
And sweeten all our mirth. 

Should he grow up to riper years, 
God grant his heart may prove, 

As sweet a home for heavenly grace, 
As now for earthly love. 

And if, beside his grave, the tears 
Our aching eyes must dim, 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 249 

God comfort us for all the love 
Which we shall lose in him ! 

III. 
I have a son, a third sweet son, 

His age I cannot tell, 
For they reckon not by years and months, 

Where he hath gone to dwell. 

To us, for fourteen anxious months, 

His infant smiles were given, 
And then he bade farewell to earth, 

And went to live in heaven. 

I cannot tell what form is his, 

What looks he weareth now, 
Nor guess how bright a glory crowns 

His shining seraph brow. 

The thoughts that fill his sinless soul, 

The bliss which he doth feel, 
Are numbered with the secret things 

Which God will not reveaL 



250 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But I know, for God hath told me this, 

That he is now at rest, 
Where other blessed infants are, 

On their Saviour's loving breast. 

Whate'er befalls his brethren twain, 

His bliss can never cease ; 
Their lot may here be grief and fear. 

But his is certain peace. 

It may be that the tempter's wiles 
Their souls from bliss may sever, 

But, if our own poor faith fail not, 
He must be ours forever. 

When we think on what our darling is, 

And what we still must be ; 
When we muse on that world's perfect bliss, 

And this world's misery ; 

When we groan beneath this load of sin, 

And feel this grief and pain, 
Oh, we'd rather lose our other two, 

Than have him here airain. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 251 

LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FOLLOWING 
PASSAGE IN A FRIEND'S LETTER. 

GEO. W. BETHUNE. 

. Last week I buried my sweet little Mary ; she was three years and 
two months old, and had been ill four weeks. She was born on the 
Sabbath, taken sick on the Sabbath, and buried on the Sabbath. 
During her illness she seemed to take great consolation in repeating 
the many hymns she had learned. " Mother," said she one day, " I 
will meet you on the way to Jordan." We thought she was asleep, 
but she was gone. The choir sang, in the most touching manner at 
the grave, " Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb," etc. (Re/c. J. IT. Dan- 
forth). 

'Twas on a blessed morning of the blessed day of 

rest, 
I clasp' d thee as a gift from God, first to a father's 

breast ; 
And sweetly didst thou nestle there, a thing of 

holy love, 
Till soul shone out thy pleasant face, like sunshine 

from above ; 
And the accents of thy lisping tongue seemed, to 

my partial thought, 

Like music, from the angel guards around thy pil- 
low, caught. 

We called thee by her precious name, who poured 
the rich perfume 



252 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

With tears upon her Master's feet, and watched his 

early tomb : 
I loved thee well, how tenderly God only knows, 

but thou 
Art clasped unto the heart of One, who loves thee 

better, now. 

'T was on another blessed day, midst the Sabbath's 

holy hush, 
When first we marked upon thy cheek the fever's 

hectic flush ; 
And a shuddering sense of mortal ill ran through 

thy gentle frame, 
Till we dared not speak the fearful thoughts that 

o'er our spirits came ; 
And many a weary, sleepless night, and weary, 

sleepless day, 
We watched, beside thy burning bed, thy young 

life pass away. 
Yet, there was joy amidst our grief, and hope, no 

tears could dim, 
As we listened to thy whispered prayers, and 

sweetly warbled hymn : 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 253 

Oh faithfully we watched thee then, amidst thy 

pangs, but thou 
Art fallen asleep on Jesus' breast, and He will 

watch thee now. 

And yet another Sabbath came, but we left the 

House of God 
To seek for thee a narrow house, beneath the ver- 
dant sod ; 
And many a bitter tear was shed, as we sadly 

asked for room, 
To hide our loved one from our sight within the 

silent tomb. 
Yet upward through those tears to heaven, each 

eye in hope was cast, 
That there will dawn for thee a day, the holiest 

and the last ; 
A day of endless life and joy, of fadeless, cloudless 

light, 

"When God Almighty and the Lamb shall chase 

away the night. 
Oh ! lovely wert thou in our eyes, my beautiful, 

but thou 

22 



254 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Wilt wake with God's own likeness then upon thy 
cherub brow. 

Thou mayest not come again to us, we would not 
call thee back 

To tread with us, midst toil and gloom, the pil- 
grim's desert track : 

But oh ! that He, the lowly One, would grant us 
grace to be 

Like thee in childlike gentleness, and meek sim- 
plicity ; 

Then shall we follow where thou art, and in the 
trying day, 

When we must tread the vale of death, thou 'It 
meet us on our way ; 

A radiant messenger of God, sent from the holy 
throng 

Around the throne, to welcome us with angel harp 
and song : 

Oh ! blest will be our meeting then, in that pure 
home on hiorh, 

Where sin no more shall cloud the heart, or sor- 
row dim the eye ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 255 



A WALK IN A CHURCHYARD. 

RICHARD C. TRENCH. 

We walked within the churchyard bounds, 

My little boy and I ; 
He laughing, running happy rounds, 

I pacing mournfully. 

"Nay, child, it is not well," I said, 
"Among the graves to shout; 

To laugh and play among the dead, 
And make this noisy rout." 

A moment to my side he clung, 

Leaving his merry play, 
A moment stilled his joyous tongue, 

Almost as hushed as they : 

Then, quite forgetting the command, 

In life's exulting burst 
Of early glee, let go my hand, 

Jovous as at the first. 



256 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

And now I did not check him more, 
For, taught by Nature's face, 

I had grown wiser than before, 
Even in that moment's space ; 

She spread no funeral-pall above 

That patch of churchyard ground, 

But the same azure vault of love 
As hung o'er all around. 

And white clouds o'er that spot would pass 

As freely as elsewhere ; 
The sunshine on no other grass 
A richer hue might wear. 

And formed from out that very mould, 

In which the dead did lie, 
The daisy with its eye of gold, 

Looked up into the sky, 

The rook was wheeling over head, 
Nor hastened to be gone — 

The small bird did its glad notes shed, 
Perched on a gray head-stone. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 257 

And God, I said, would never give 

This light upon the earth, 
Nor bid in childhood's heart to live 

These springs of gushing mirth - 

If our one wisdom were to mourn, 

And linger with the dead ; 
To nurse, as wisest, thoughts forlorn 

Of worm and earthy bed. 

Oh no ! the glory earth puts on, 
The child's unchecked delight, 

Both witness to a triumph won, 
If we but read aright : 

A triumph won o'er sin and death, 

From these the Saviour saves ; 
And, like a happy infant, Faith 

Can play among the graves. 



22* 



258 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

"WHO THAT A WATCHER DOTH RE- 
MAIN." 

RICHARD C. TRENCH. 

"What pang is permanent with man? From the highest 
As from the meanest thing of every day 
He learns to wean himself : for the strong hours 
Conquer him." 

Who that a watcher doth remain 
Beside a couch of mortal pain, 
Deems he can ever smile again ? 

Or who that weeps beside a bier, 

Counts he has any more to fear 

From the world's flatteries, false and leer? 

And yet anon and he doth start 
At the light toys in which his heart 
Can now already claim its part. 

hearts of ours ! so weak and poor, 
That nothing there can long endure ; 
And so their hurts find shameful cure. 

While every sadder, wiser thought, 
Each holier aim which sorrow brought, 
Fades quite away, and comes to nought. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 259 

O Thou ! who dost our weakness know, 
Watch for us, that the strong hours so 
Not wean us from our wholesome wo. 

Grant thou that we may long retain 
The wholesome memories of pain 
Nor wish to lose them soon again. 



ELEGIAC POEM. 

RICHARD C. TRENCH. 

No mother's eye beside thee wakes to-night, 
No taper burns beside thy lonely bed ; 

Darkling thou liest, hidden out of sight, 

And none are near thee but the silent dead. 

How cheerly glows this hearth, yet glows in vain, 
For we uncheered beside it sit alone, 

And listen to the wild and beating rain 

In angry gusts against our casement blown. 

And though we nothing speak, yet well I know 
That both our hearts are there, where thou dost 
keep; 



260 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Within thy narrow chamber far below, 

For the first time unwatched, thy lonely sleep. 

Oh no, not thou ! and we our faith deny, 

This thought allowing: thou, removed from 
harms, 

In Abraham's bosom dost securely lie ; 

Oh ! not in Abraham's, in a Saviour's arms : 

In that dear Lord's, who, in thy worst distress, 
Thy bitterest anguish, gave thee, dearest child, 

Still to abide in perfect gentleness, 

And like an angel to be meek and mild. 

Sweet corn of wheat, committed to the ground 
To die, and live, and bear more precious ear ; 

While in the heart of earth thy Saviour found 
His place of rest, for thee we will not fear. 

Sleep softly, till that blessed rain and dew, 

Down lighting upon earth, such change shall 
bring, 

That all its fields of death shall laugh anew, 
Yea, with a living harvest lauo-h and sino-. 

7 o o o 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 261 



THE LENT JEWELS. 

AN EASTERN TALE. 

Iii schools of wisdom all the day was spent ; 
His steps at eve the Rabbi homeward bent, 
With homeward thoughts, which dwelt upon the 

wife, 
And two fair children, who consoled his life. 
She, meeting at the threshold, led him in, 
And with these words preventing, did begin : 

"Ever rejoicing at your wished return 
Yet am I most so now : for since this morn 
I have been much perplexed and sorely tried 
Upon one point, which you shall now decide. 
Some years ago, a friend into my care 
Some jewels gave, rich, precious gems they were ; 
But having given them in my charge, this friend 
Did afterward nor come for them, nor send, 
But left them in my keeping for so long, 
That now it almost seems to me a wrong 



2(52 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

That he should suddenly arrive to-day, 
To take those jewels, which he left, away. 
What think you? Shall I freely yield them back, 
And with no murmuring? so henceforth to lack, 
Those gems myself, which I had learned to see 
Almost as mine forever, — mine in fee." 

"What question can be here? Your own true heart 

Must needs advise you of the only part ; 

That may be claimed again, which was but lent, 

And should be yielded with no discontent. 

Nor surely can we find herein a wrong, 

That it was left us to enjoy it long." 

"Good is the word," she answered; "may we now, 

And evermore that it is good allow !" 

And, rising, to an inner chamber led, 

And there she showed him stretched upon one bed, 

Two children pale ; and he the jewels knew 

Which God had lent him, and resumed anew. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 263 



OX THE DEATH OF AN INFANT. 

DIRK SMITS. 
[translated from the dutch.] 

A host of angels flying, 

Through cloudless skies impelled, 

Upon the earth beheld 
A pearl of beauty lying, 

Worthy to glitter bright 

In Heaven's vast halls of light. 

They saw with glances tender, 
An infant newly born, 
O'er whom life's earliest morn 

Just cast its opening splendour: 
Virtue it could not know, 
Xor vice, nor joy, nor woe. 

The blest angelic legion 

Greeted its birth above, 
And came with looks of love, 

From heaven's enchanting region ; 



264 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Bending their winged way 
To where the baby lay. 

They spread their pinions o'er it, 
That little pearl which shone 
With lustre all its own, 

And then on high they bore it, 
Where glory has its birth ; 
But left the shell on earth. 



OUR WEE WHITE ROSE. 

GERALD MASSEY. 

All in our marriage garden 

Grew, smiling up to God, 
A bonnier flower than ever 

Sucked the green warmth of the sod; 
beautiful unfathomably 

Its little life unfurled ; 
And crown of all things, was our wee 

White Rose of all the world. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 265 

From out a balmy bosom, 

Our bud of beauty grew 
It fed on smiles and sunshine 

On tears for daintier dew : 
Aye nestling warm and tenderly, 

Our leaves of love were curled, 
So close and close, about our wee 

White Kose of all the world. 

With mystical faint fragance, 

Our house of life she filled ; 
Eevealed each hour some fairy tower, 

Where winged hopes might build ! 
We saw — though none like us might see, — 

Such precious promise pearled 
Upon the petals of our wee 

White Rose of all the world. 

But evermore the halo 

Of angel-light increased, 
Like the mystery of moonlight 

That folds some fairy feast. 
23 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Snow-white, snow-soft, snow-silently 

Our darling bud up-curled, 
And dropt i' the grave — God's lap — our wee 

White Rose of all the world ! 

Our Rose was but in blossom, 

Our life was but in spring, 
When down the solemn midnight — 

We heard the Spirits sing — 
"Another bud of infancy 

With holy dews impearled !" 
And in their hands they bore our wee 

White Rose of all the world. 

You scarce could think so small a thing 

Could leave a loss so large ; 
Her little light such shadow fling, 

From dawn to sunset's marge. 
In other springs our life may be 

In bannered bloom unfurled, 
But never — never match our wee 

White Rose of all the world. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 267 



THE LITTLE PILGRIM. 

WILLIAM C. RICHARDS. 

I saw a little maiden come, 
A-sudden, to that River, 

At whose dark brink bold lips close dumb, 
And stout hearts quail and shiver — 
The marge of Death's cold River. 

Down to the stream the little maid 
Was led by white-robed angels ; 

Around her golden harps they played, 
And sung those sweet evangels 
Sung only by the angels. 

Five days upon the brink she lay 

Of that appalling River ; 
And Death shot arrows every day, 

From his insatiate quiver, 

At her beside the River. 



268 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Oh ! but I stood amazed to hear 
Her wan lips sweetly saying, 

11 Do n't pray to keep me, mother dear, 
I must not here be staying ;" 
Such words of wonder, saying : 

" Mother, I do not fear to die, 
My sins are all forgiven ; 

And shining angels hovering nigh, 
Will bear my soul to heaven, 
Through God's dear Lamb forgiven." 

And then, from her fond mother's breast. 
She plunged into that River ; 

Her fluttering pulses sunk to rest, 
Her heart was still forever, 
Her soul beyond the River. 

Now when my children wait to hear, 
Some tender touching story, 

I tell them how, without a fear, 
She died, and went to glory ; 
And tears flow with the story. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 269 



AN EXPOSTULATION WITH ONE WHO 
PITIED A DYING CHILD. 

CAROLINE MAY. 

You "pity her?" Oh! why 
Pity the tender child, 
So patient and so mild, 
Laid early down to die? 
Gentle and kind the mission 
Of Death, the good physician, 
Who at her side stands nigh. 

She looks npon his brow, 
And reads there very plain, 
How he will ease her pain, 
And make her well ; and how 
He'll bear her spirit whither 
It never more can wither, 
As it is drooping now. 

23* 



270 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Early she is laid down; 
Before life's morning smile, 
Joyful, and free from guile, 
Was darkened by a frown; 
Early she leaves all sorrow; 
Early she bids good morrow 
To heaven, and harp, and crown. 

You pity her? Why so? 
Her heart has never grieved, 
Has never been deceived, 
Has never dreamed of wo ; 
Why keep her here to suffer, 
To know the earth much rougher, 
Than childhood e'er can know? 

Pity, you should not say, 
To those whom God has called, 
To join the disenthralled, 
The saints of upper day; 
Who live at home in heaven, 
Where sins are all forgiven, 
And tears all wiped away ! 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 2?1 

But pity the bereft, 

Whose tearful eyes are dim, 

Nor see the Love of Him 

Who has their hearts-strings cleft; 

Who in the night awaken, 

To murmur for joys taken, 

And muse o'er sorrows left. 

W T ho think they yet must brave 
Many a giant storm, 
Rearing his dismal form, 
Over life's changeful wave ! 
Such, such are to be pitied, 
Not they who are committed 
To a calm, early grave. 

I would not wish to reap 
Ere I have scattered seeds, 
Or done appointed deeds; 
Yet I could almost weep, 
That I were not now. dying 
As that sweet child is, lying 
In ray last happy sleep. 



272 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 



THE MORNING-GLORY. 

BY MARIA W. LOWELL. 

We wreathed about our darling's head 

The morning-glory bright ; 
Her little face looked out beneath, 

So full of life and light, 
So lit as with a sunrise, 

That we could only say, 
" She is the morning-glory true, 

And her poor types are they? 

So always from that happy time 

We called her by their name, 
And very fitting did it seem ; 

For sure as morning came, 
Behind her cradle bars she smiled 

To catch the first faint ray, 
As from the trellis smiles the flower 

And opens to the day. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 273 

But not so beautiful they rear 

Their airy cups of blue, 
As turned her sweet eyes to the light, 

Brimmed with sleep's tender dew ; 
And not so close their tendrils fine 

Round their supports are thrown, 
As those dear arms whose outstretched plea 

Clasped all hearts to her own. 

We used to think how she had come, 

Even as comes the flower, 
The last and perfect added gift 

To crown Love's morning hour : 
And how in her was imaged forth 

The love we could not say, 
As on the little dew-drops round 

Shines back the heart of day. 

We never could have thought, Goa, 

That she must wither up, 
Almost before a day was flown, 

Like the morning-glory's cup ; 



274 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

We never thought to see her droop 

Her fair and noble head, 
Till she lay stretched before our eyes, 

Wilted, and cold, and dead ! 

The morning-glory's blossoming, 

Will soon be coming round, 
We see their rows of heart-shaped leaves, 

Up-springing from the ground ; 
The tender things the winter killed 

Eenew again their birth, 
But the glory of our morning 

Has passed away from earth. 

Oh, earth ! in vain our aching eyes 

Stretch over thy green plain ! 
Too harsh thy dews, too gross thine air, 

Her spirit to sustain : 
But up in groves of Paradise 

Full surely we shall see 
Our morning-glory beautiful 

Twine round our dear Lord's knee. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 275 

WHAT WAS THY LIFE? 

RICHARD C. TRENCH. 

What was thy life ? A pearl cast up awhile 
Upon the bank and shoal of time ; again, 

Even as did the gazers' eyes beguile, 

To be drawn backward by the hungry main. 

What was thy life ? A fountain of sweet wave, 
Which to the salt sea's margin all too near 

Rose sparkling, and a few steps scarcely gave, 
Ere that distained its waters fresh and clear. 

What was thy life ? A flowering almond tree, 
Which all too soon its blossoms did unfold ; 

And so must see their lustre presently 

Dimmed, and their beauty nipped by envious 
cold. 

What was thy life ? A bright and beauteous flame, 
Wherein, a season, light and joy we found : 



276 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But a swift sound of rushing tempest came, 

It past, and sparkless ashes strewed the ground ! 

What was thy life ? A bird in infant's hand 
Held with too slight a grasp, and which, before 

He knows or fears, its pinions doth expand, 
And with a sudden impulse heavenward soar. 



BABY'S SHOES. 

WM. C. BENNETT. 

Oh ! those little, those little blue shoes ! 

Those shoes that no little feet use : 
Oh ! the price were high 
That those shoes would buy, 

Those little blue unused shoes ! 

For they hold the small shape of feet 
That no more their mother's eyes meet ; 

That, by God's good will, 

Years since, grew still, 
And ceased from their totter so sweet. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 277 

And oh ! since that baby slept, 

So hushed, how the mother has kept, 

With a tearful pleasure, 

That little dear treasure, 
And over them thought and wept ! 

For they mind her forever more 
Of a patter along the floor ; 

And blue eyes. she sees 

Look up from her knees, 
With the look that in life they wore. 

As they lie before her there, 
There babbles from chair to chair 

A little sweet face 

That 's a gleam in the place, 
With its little gold curls of hair. 

Then, oh ! wonder not that her heart 
From all else would rather part 
Than those tiny blue shoes 
That no little feet use, 
And whose sight makes such fond tears start. 
24 



278 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

TO A DEAD INFANT. 

CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY. 

Sleep, little baby ! sleep, 

Not in thy cradled bed, 
Not on thy mother's breast, 
Henceforth shall be thy rest, 
But with the quiet dead. 

Yes, with the quiet dead, 
Baby, thy rest shall be. 

Oh ! many a weary wight, 

Weary of life and light, 

Would fain lie down with thee ! 

Flee, little tender nursling ! 

Flee to thy grassy nest ; 
There the first flowers shall blow. 
The first pure flakes of snow 

Shall fall upon thy breast. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 279* 

Peace, peace ! the little bosom 
Labours with shortening breath ; 

Peace, peace ! that tremulous sigh 

Speaks his departure nigh ; 
Those are the damps of death. 

I Ve seen thee in thy beauty, 

A thing all health and glee ; 
But never then wert thou 
So beautiful as now, 

Baby, thou seemest to me. 

Thine upturned eyes glazed over, 

Like harebells wet with dew, 
Already veiled and hid 
By the convulsed lid, 

Their pupils darkly blue. 

Thy little mouth half open, 

The soft lip quivering, 
As if like summer air, 
Ruffling the rose-leaves, there 

Thy soul were fluttering. 



280 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

Mount up, immortal essence, 
Young spirit, hence, depart ! 

And is this death ? dread thing, 

If such thy visiting, 

How beautiful thou art ! 

Oh ! I could gaze forever 
Upon that waxen face, 

So passionless, so pure ! 

The little shrine was sure 
An angel's dwelling place. 

Thou weepest, childless mother ! 

Ay, weep, 't will ease thy heart ; 
He was thy flnst-born son, 
Thy first, thy only one ; 

'T is hard from him to part. 

'T is hard to lay thy darling 
Deep in the damp cold earth, 

His empty crib to see ; 

His silent nursery, 

Late ringing with his mirth. 



- CONSOLATORY VERSES. 281 

To meet again in slumber 

His small mouth's rosy kiss, 
Then, wakened with a start 
By thine own throbbing heart, 

His twining arms to miss : 

And then to lie and weep, 

And think the live-long night, 

(Feeding thine own distress 

With accurate greediness), 
Of every past delight ; 

Of all his winning ways, 

His pretty playful smiles, 
His joy at sight of thee, 
His tricks, his mimicry 

And all his little wiles. 

Oh ! these are recollections 

Bound mothers' hearts that cling, 
That mingle with the tears 
And smiles of after years, 
With apt awakening. 
24* 



282 CONSOLATORY VERSES. 

But wilt thou then, fond mother, 

In after years look back, 
(Time brings such wondrous easing), 
With sadness not unpleasing, 
Even on this gloomy track. 

Thou 'It say, "My first-born blessing ! 

It almost broke my heart, 
When thou wert forced to go, 
And yet for thee, I know 

'T was better to depart. 

" God took thee, in His mercy, 
A lamb untasked, untried ; 

He fought the fight for thee, 

He won the victory. 
And thou art sanctified. 

" I look around, and see, 
The evil ways of men, 
And oh ! beloved child, 
I 'm more than reconciled 
To thy departure then. 



CONSOLATORY VERSES. 283 

" The little arms that clasped me, 
The innocent lips that pressed, 

Would they have been as pure 

Till now, as when of yore 
I lulled thee on my breast ? 

" Now, like a dew-drop shrined 

Within a crystal stone, 
Thou 'rt safe in heaven, my dove, 
Safe with the Source of love, 

The everlasting One. 

"And when the hour arrives, 

From flesh that sets me free, 
Thy spirit may await 
The first at heaven's gate, 

To meet and welcome me," 



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